THEMATIC EVALUATION

THE CONTRIBUTION OF
UN WOMEN TO PREVENT
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND
EXPAND ACCESS TO SERVICES
© 2013 UN Women. All rights reserved.
Produced by the Evaluation Office of UN Women
Evaluation Team:
Universalia Management Group
Katrina Rojas, Team Leader
Annette Wenderoth, Co-Team Leader
Heather Buchanan, Senior Evaluation Specialist
Marie-Hélène Adrien, Methodological Advisor
Margaret Shaw, Senior VAW Expert
Monica Trevino, Senior Evaluation Specialist
Emma Mason, Evaluation Specialist
Elisabette Micaro, Evaluation Specialist
Mayssam Zaaroura, Research Associate
Evaluation Task Manager:
Inga Sniukaite, UN Women Evaluation Office
Editor: Michelle Weston
Layout: Scott Lewis
Cover Photo: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
Disclaimer:
The analysis and recommendations of this report do
not necessarily reflect the views of UN Women, its
Executive Board or the United Nations Member States.
The designations in this publication do not imply an
opinion on the legal status of any country or terri-
tory, or its authorities, or the delimitation of frontiers.
The text has not been edited to official publication
standards and UN Women accepts no responsibility
for error.
Acknowledgements
A number of people contributed to the evaluation re-
port. The evaluation was conducted by the Universalia
Management Group, an independent external firm.
The evaluation was led by Katrina Rojas and supported
by a large team including Heather Buchanan and
Annette Wenderoth, amongst others. The UN Women
Evaluation Office team included Inga Sniukaite,
Isabel Suarez and Sabrina Evangelista. The evaluation
benefitted from the active participation of country
and headquarters reference groups comprised of UN
Women staff and management. UN Women country-
level evaluation focal points and Representatives
ensured the country visits went smoothly. The external
reference group, comprised of key United Nations enti-
ties, provided valuable feedback as did Elliot Stern who
served as the external peer reviewer.
This evaluation would not have been possible without
the support and involvement of stakeholders, ben-
eficiaries and partners at the national, regional and
global level. We extend thanks to all those who pro-
vided feedback which helped to ensure the evaluation
reflects a broad range of views.
THEMATIC EVALUATION
THE CONTRIBUTION OF
UN WOMEN TO PREVENT
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND
EXPAND ACCESS TO SERVICES

EVALUATION OFFICE
UN WOMEN
NEW YORK, AUGUST 2013
ACRONYMS
AIDS Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome

CEDAW Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women

CSO Civil Society Organization

CSW Commission on the Status of Women

CSW57 57th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women

DAW Division for Advancement of Women

ESCAP Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific

EVAW Elimination of Violence Against Women

EVAW Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls

GBV Gender-Based Violence

GEEW Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women

HIV Human Immunodeficiency Virus

IANGWE Inter-agency Network on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment

INSTRAW United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women

IOM International Organization for Migration

M&E Monitoring and Evaluation

MDGs Millennium Development Goals

NGO Non-governmental organization

OIOS Office of Internal Oversight Services

OSAGI Office of the Special Advisor on Gender Issues and the Advancement of Women

QCPR Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review

RBM Results-based management

UN Trust Fund United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women

UN-SWAP United Nations System-Wide Action Plan on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment

UN Women United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women

UNCT United Nations Country Team

UNDAF United Nations Development Assistance Framework

UNDP United Nations Development Programme

UNFPA United Nations Population Fund

UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund

UNIFEM United Nations Development Fund for Women

UNODC United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

VAW Violence Against Women

WHO World Health Organization

TABLE OF CONTENTS
FOREWORD 4

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 5

1. BACKGROUND 12

1.1 Introduction 12

1.2 Context 12

1.3 Methodology 13

2. FINDINGS 16

2.1 UN Women: The challenges of a new organization 16

2.2 Influence of context on EVAW 16

2.3 Defining UN Women’s niche in EVAW 18

2.4 UN Women’s three mandate areas: Contributions to EVAW? 19

2.5 Further clarification of UN Women’s mandate areas in EVAW 31

2.6 Practices, systems and resources to support UN Women’s work in EVAW 33

3. CONCLUSIONS 36

4. RECOMMENDATIONS 37

BOXES, FIGURES AND TABLES

Box 2.1 – Examples of international and regional commitments to EVAW 17

Box 2.2 – The Virtual Knowledge Centre to End Violence Against Women and Girls 24

Box 2.3 – Good practice: Global Safe Cities Initiative 27

Box 2.4 – UNiTE Campaign Goals 31

Box 2.5 – Good practice: Capturing and disseminating outcomes of

UN Trust Fund grantees 34

Figure 2.1 – Survey of UN Women staff: Contributions to strengthening capacities 24

Table 1.1 – Country selection criteria 15

Table 3.1 – Contributions by source for the year ending 31 December 2012 35

APPENDICES

APPENDIX I: LIST OF FINDINGS 41

APPENDIX II: LIST OF RECOMMENDATIONS 43

FOREWORD
Violence against women (VAW) is one of the most Key challenges to which include: the lack of clarity on
widespread violations of human rights which cut the entity’s larger mandate for convening partners and
across boundaries of age, race, culture, wealth and for coordinating and promoting accountability of the
geography. It not only negatively affects women’s United Nations system; the continued fragmentation
well-being and their full participation in society, but of work in EVAW in terms of structure, division of la-
also has wider implications for society due to its ef- bour, communications and strategy; and UN Women’s
fects on the family, community and country. Ending results-based management practices and systems
violence against women (EVAW) is one of UN Women’s which did not support its ability to track progress or
core areas of work and is also of a cross-cutting internally share and learn from good practices. The
nature, as it is inextricably linked to other areas of the evaluation makes six strategic recommendations to
entities work. UN Women aimed at strengthening its work in this
thematic area.
The UN Women Evaluation Office undertook this cor-
porate thematic evaluation to examine the work of UN The international community has continuously voiced
Women and its predecessors in this thematic area and its support for EVAW. This commitment was exempli-
learn from past experiences in order to inform current fied at the 57th Session of the Commission on the
and future work. The evaluation reviewed UN Women’s Status of Women in March 2013, as it provided an
normative, operational and coordination mandates – agreed-upon basis for moving forward to end violence
and synergies between these at the country, regional against women and girls. It is therefore a key time
and global levels. Lessons are drawn, in particular, from for the international community to build on this mo-
case studies conducted in Brazil, Grenada, Guatemala, mentum by stepping-up its efforts to end violence
India, Jamaica, Morocco and Mozambique. This evalu- against women and girls, and ensure commitment and
ation was amongst the first corporate evaluations of adequate resources for strengthening the response
UN Women, and is the first one being presented to the to violence.
Executive Board. The evaluation provides a baseline for
We hope that this timely evaluation will be useful for
UN Women’s work on EVAW and should be used to
UN Women management and Executive Board mem-
clarify and operationalize its work in this thematic area.
bers in strengthening the work of UN Women to end
The evaluation findings highlight a number of nor- violence against women and girls.
mative, operational and coordination achievements
including: supporting the Commission on the Status
of Women, which at its 57th session facilitated the first
Agreed Conclusions on EVAW in 15 years; contributing
to an increase in the number of governments adopting Inga Sniukaite
laws and action plans targeting VAW; raising aware-
Acting Chief, UN Women Evaluation Office
ness on VAW and engaging key actors (including men
and boys) through the Secretary-General’s UNiTE cam-
paign, and the Say No and Safe Cities initiatives; and
strengthening coordination work on EVAW through
joint programmes and gender theme groups. As a
young entity in the process of implementing its con-
solidated mandate and functions, UN Women is facing
the typical challenges a new entity should face, such
as clarifying procedures and operationalizing goals.

Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to

Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services 4
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Purpose and scope
This corporate thematic evaluation examined the
work of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality
and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women)
and its predecessor entities1 in preventing violence
against women (VAW) and expanding access to
related services. VAW is one of the most widespread
violations of human rights and includes physical,
sexual, psychological and economic abuse. It also cuts
across boundaries of age, race, culture, wealth and
geography. The United Nations defines VAW as “any
act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely
to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or
suffering to women, including threats of such acts,
coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether
occurring in public or in private life.”2
The scope of the evaluation covered all dimensions
of UN Women’s work addressing violence against
women and girls from 2008 to 2013. It included UN
Women’s normative, operational and coordination
mandates. The scope also included intergovernmen-
tal support, global, regional and country programmes,
UN Women’s contributions to the Secretary-General’s
UNiTE to End Violence against Women 2008-2015
campaign and the United Nations Trust Fund to End
Violence Against Women (UN Trust Fund). It did not
cover UN Women’s nor its predecessor entities’ work
on violence against women and girls in conflict and
post-conflict contexts as these were the subject of a
separate evaluation.
The objectives of the evaluation were to capture key
results and lessons learned from the contributions of
1 UN Women’s four predecessor entities were: the Division
of the Advancement of Women (DAW), the United Nations
International Research and Training Institute for the
Advancement of Women (INSTRAW), the United Nations
Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), and the Office of
the Special Advisor on Gender Issues and the Advancement
of Women (OSAGI).
2 General Assembly resolution 48/104, Declaration on the
Elimination of Violence against Women, 1993.
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services
UN Women’s predecessor entities between 2008 and
2011 to inform UN Women’s current and future work
and analyze the extent to which UN Women has stra-
tegically positioned itself to implement its mandate
of normative, operational and coordination work in
the area of VAW.
As per the evaluation’s Terms of Reference and incep-
tion report, the standard set of evaluation criteria
were used, namely: relevance/coherence, effective-
ness, sustainability and efficiency/organizational
performance. The evaluation was also based on the
concept of future strategic positioning. The intended
primary users of the evaluation findings are the UN
Women Executive Board and leadership, as well as
staff at headquarters and, regional and country levels.
The intended uses of the evaluation are to inform fu-
ture programming and management decisions.
Context
UN Women was established in July 2010 under
General Assembly resolution 64/289. The new entity
consolidates the mandates and functions of its pre-
decessor entities with the “additional role of leading,
coordinating and promoting the accountability of the
United Nations system in its work on gender equality
and the empowerment of women.” The mandate and
functions of UN Women therefore encompass inter-
governmental normative support; operational work
to assist Member States implement global standards
and norms; efforts to convene and forge partnerships
with Member States, civil society, United Nations
entities and other global, regional and country level
partners; and coordination to hold the United Nations
system accountable for its commitments on gender
equality.
These functions apply broadly within the entity and
specifically to the work of ending violence against
women (EVAW). As reflected in its strategic plans,
EVAW is a priority for UN Women and, as such, is one of
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
5
its key corporate goals. Five Divisions/Sections in two
UN Women bureaux, namely the Intergovernmental
Support and Strategic Partnership Bureau and the
Policy and Programming Bureau, contribute to, man-
age and coordinate its work in EVAW. This includes
the administration of the UN Trust Fund and serving
as Secretariat for the Secretary-General’s UNiTE cam-
paign. UN Women invests significantly in EVAW and, in
2010 and 2011, expenditure totaled $21 million and $24
million respectively.3
Methodology
The evaluation was managed by the UN Women
Evaluation Office and conducted by a private firm. The
Evaluation Office also engaged peer/expert reviewers
to provide advice and convened a reference group at
headquarters in New York to inform the evaluation
process. Reference groups in each country visited were
provided with draft deliverables, and the opportunity
to validate and provide comments. The evaluation was
conducted in three phases: inception (August-October
2012); data collection (October-April 2012); and report-
ing (May-June 2013).
The evaluation methodology was grounded in human
rights and gender equality principles, and guided by
contribution analysis. The evaluation team developed
a reconstructed theory of change which provided a
preliminary high-level results model and drove discus-
sions on the inter-dependencies between the three
dimensions of UN Women’s mandate, influencing
factors and assumptions. For the evaluation both
qualitative and quantitative data were used. A total of
472 stakeholders were consulted through interviews
and focus groups. An electronic survey conducted of
UN Women staff in-country and in regional offices had
a high response rate. The evaluation team reviewed
relevant literature, 300 documents, databases and
other types of written information. The evaluation
team also conducted one-week country site visits to
Brazil, Grenada, Guatemala, India, Jamaica, Morocco
and Mozambique during which 340 stakeholders were
consulted.
3 Unless otherwise indicated refers to United States dollars.
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services
Challenges
While UN Women was formally created in July 2010,
it only became operational in January 2011. Since its
establishment, UN Women has been undergoing
a process of clarifying its mandate, procedures for
operationalizing its goals and objectives, developing
an appropriate organizational structure, securing
resources, and building a results-based management
(RBM) framework, all whilst trying to integrate its
predecessor entities. The evaluation sought to draw on
programming data from the past, across predecessor
entities and over a five-year period that included the
transition phase to the new entity, which presented
challenges to the evaluation.
Lessons from the past
The comparative advantage of UN Women’s predeces-
sor entities lay in their substantive contributions to
intergovernmental processes, their adoption of a part-
nership approach and their flexibility, which allowed
them to make clear contributions to EVAW.4 Most of
UN Women’s predecessor entities did not have a clearly
defined and articulated niche concerning EVAW, either
implicitly or explicitly outlined in their strategies. UN
Women’s mandate has different dimensions and mul-
tiple themes related to its overall corporate goals (e.g.
economic empowerment of women, peace and secu-
rity and humanitarian response, women’s economic
empowerment, and political participation). It therefore
has the potential to contribute to the design of inte-
grative and holistic approaches to addressing EVAW.
Adopting such an approach can help UN Women
coordinate and advise other organizations working in
EVAW, allowing it to establish a niche for itself.
4 See, for example, United Nations Office for Internal Oversight
Services (OIOS), Evaluation of the Office of the Special
Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women
(OSAGI) and the Division for the Advancement of Women
(DAW). (New York, 2011).
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
6
Key findings
Contextual setting
UN Women’s EVAW-related work takes place in a dy-
namic global, regional and national context where UN
Women is affected by multiple political, cultural and
institutional factors. Such a context, and the entity’s
mandate, provide opportunities and give rise to con-
tinuing challenges to furthering the EVAW agenda.
Globally, opportunities are arising from the 57th
Session of the Commission on the Status of Women
(CSW57), the central theme of which was elimination
and prevention of all forms of violence against women
and girls, which provided an agreed-upon basis for
moving forward on EVAW. Further impetus is gener-
ated by the potential importance of gender-based
violence (GBV) within the post-2015 development
agenda and the evidence of an increasingly favorable
context for EVAW within the United Nations system.
There are, however, significant challenges in this global
context including limited resource availability, and
political and social conservatism resistant to a progres-
sive VAW agenda. The country visits underlined the
diverse contexts in which EVAW operational work was
implemented. Overall, findings highlighted the impor-
tance of tailoring EVAW strategies and approaches to
the specific context of each country, and drawing on
regional similarities in order to use regional partner-
ships, networks and intergovernmental processes to
support work on EVAW.
Relevance of UN Women’s EVAW-related
work
UN Women’s EVAW-related work has built upon that
of its predecessor entities. It has therefore been rel-
evant and responsive in the context, as evidenced by
its congruence with global, regional and national com-
mitments and priorities.
UN Women has sought to operationalize the
interlinkages of human rights issues which must be si-
multaneously addressed and ensure EVAW be treated
as a cross-cutting theme incorporated in UN Women’s
strategic plan and programming. As a new entity, UN
Women is still in the process of defining its niche in
EVAW relative to other organizations, especially within
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services
the United Nations system, and thus determine how
it will add value to, and provide leadership on EVAW
related work.
Effectiveness and sustainability
Contributions to EVAW under UN Women’s Three
Mandate Areas
Intergovernmental normative support
UN Women has given continuity to the significant
contributions made by DAW and OSAGI in supporting
the normative role of United Nations intergovern-
mental processes and mechanisms related to EVAW,
particularly the General Assembly, the Economic
and Social Council, the Commission on the Status of
Women (CSW) and the Security Council.5 UN Women
effectively builds and expands upon the work of
its predecessor entities to enhance VAW normative
frameworks by giving substantive guidance on good
practices and standards, developing an evidence base,
and using its capacity to mobilize various key actors
in support of intergovernmental bodies and mecha-
nisms. UN Women’s effectiveness in this area was
demonstrated at the CSW57, where its contributions
facilitated agreed conclusions on EVAW for the first
time in 15 years. These agreed conclusions called on
Member States to take a broad range of measures to
tackle violence against women and girls around the
world. CSW57 also illustrated how UN Women has
built on its predecessors entities’ capacities to convene
stakeholders in support of intergovernmental pro-
cesses and encourage Member States to take action
through the COMMIT initiative, which asked govern-
ments to announce specific new measures to end VAW
and resulted in responses from 54 governments.
Operational work
A considerable proportion of UN Women’s operational
work aims to align national legal frameworks with
international agreements regarding women’s human
rights. UN Women and its predecessor entities pro-
vided technical support and funding to governments
and civil society partners which resulted in new or
strengthened VAW-related national legal frameworks,
5 The contributions of DAW and OSAGI are documented in the
OIOS evaluation (ibid).
7
policies and action plans. For example, between
2008 and 2011, an increased number of governments
adopted laws targeting VAW6 and, as of 2012, 125 coun-
tries are reported to have laws penalizing domestic
violence.7 Although these achievements cannot be
attributed to UN Women or its predecessor entities
alone, the evaluation confirmed that UN Women made
substantial contributions in this area. Nevertheless,
appropriate support to accompany the policy and legal
process from design and approval to implementation
was often missing. For example, several staff related
issues were identified in Brazil and India pertaining to
both staff turnover and contract limitations which had
implications for retaining staff with both the expertise
and network of contacts required at a strategic level
of government, and in Mozambique support in the de-
velopment of strategies or action plans did not include
costing of strategies or accountability mechanisms to
foster effective implementation of those plans and
strategies. Moreover, the adoption of project approach-
es in several countries did not allow a timeframe long
enough to see through policy and implementation.
UN Women’s support has also contributed to expand-
ing the type, quality and access to services for VAW
survivors, including the most excluded and vulnerable,
at the country level. UN Women and UNIFEM before
it have engaged in a large number of relevant and ef-
fective efforts to strengthen the capacity of national
actors to address VAW-related issues with traditional
partners such as women’s organizations and machin-
eries, but also with relevant actors in the justice, police
and health sectors, parliamentarians, media, and reli-
gious and traditional community leaders. The country
case studies provide examples of specific efforts and
achievements at the country and regional level. At
6 United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women,
“Eliminating Violence against Women: 15 Years after the
Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action”, in Words to
Action: Newsletter on Violence against Women, Issue No. 8.
(July 2010).
7 UN Women press release, UN Women Executive Director
launches new initiative to spotlight national commitments to
end violence against women, 20 November 2012. Available at:
http://www.unwomen.org/2012/11/UN Women-executive-
director-launches-new-initiative-to-spotlight-national-
commitments-to-end-violence-against-women/
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services
the global level, the Virtual Knowledge Centre to End
Violence Against Women and Girls, an online resource
aimed to encourage and support evidence-based pro-
gramming to prevent and respond to violence against
women and girls, had over 270,000 users from 221
countries and territories since its launch in 2010 until
the end of 2011, the majority of which were affiliated
with Civil Society Organizations (CSOs).
Due to the lack of data on long-term and cumulative
effects of efforts to build capacity, the evaluation found
little evidence of sustained capacity improvements.
Training was one of the primary means of building
capacity. However, training events often lacked the fol-
low-up needed to support and better understand the
extent of institutionalization of such work. External
factors also affected the potential for sustained ca-
pacity improvements. For example, government and
non-government organization (NGO) partners faced
challenges generating the financial resources required
to sustain the improvements.
UN Women has also been active in raising public
awareness and/or commitment to ending VAW, and
in engaging key actors (including men and boys) who
have the potential to influence perceptions and re-
lated behaviors in preventing VAW. ‘Say NO - UNiTE’ is
an example of an innovative online platform showcas-
ing advocacy efforts around the world. Heads of State
and Ministers from 73 governments, and almost 700
parliamentarians, and 1000 CSOs had signed-up to
‘Say No - UNiTE’ at the time of the evaluation. However,
UN Women has not systematically monitored or evalu-
ated the effectiveness of such efforts in contributing
to changes in attitudes and behaviors related to VAW.
The global Safe Cities Free of Violence Against Women
and Girls initiative, which uses a variety of strategies
to prevent VAW, is a laudable exception in that every
city programme includes collection of evidence at
every step of programme design, implementation and
evaluation.
Coordination
At the global, regional and national levels, UN Women
has facilitated joint action among partners on EVAW.
Its larger mandate for convening partners and, coordi-
nating and promoting the accountability of the United
8
Nations system requires clarification, especially in
terms of approaches for enhancing key inter-agency
coordination, both globally and at country-level,
and building upon mechanisms such as the United
Nations System-Wide Action Plan on Gender Equality
and Women’s Empowerment (UN-SWAP).
UN Women and its predecessor entities have formed,
maintained and expanded networks and partnerships
to increase coherence and coordination of efforts with
a wide range of actors at global, regional and national
levels. It has been effective at taking advantage of
partnerships with multiple actors at various levels, for
instance in helping to ensure the success of CSW57.
In terms of inter-agency coordination at the country
level, UN Women and its predecessor entities have
furthered the work on EVAW through the United
Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF),
joint programmes, gender theme groups and special-
ized working groups. The country case studies showed
gender equality to be either a specific objective or
mainstreamed across different components of the
UNDAFs reviewed, and that leadership by UN Women
on EVAW in the United Nations country team (UNCT)
was only recently taking shape. They also illustrated
the potential and the demand for UN Women to play
a greater coordination role, but it was unclear both
internally and externally, what this role would look like
given the current resourcing and capacity of the coun-
try offices. In general, the effectiveness of UN Women’s
efforts at country-level coordination through formal
mechanisms is not yet clear. At the regional level, UN
Women’s predecessor entities often took a lead role in
organizing and reporting on the UNiTE campaign, es-
pecially via sub-regional offices. UN Women’s regional
architecture provides a means to enhance inter-agency
coordination at the regional level. At the global level,
there are formal coordination mechanisms, such as
the Inter-Agency Network on Gender Equality and
Women’s Empowerment (IANGWE) Task Force on
EVAW, which promote joint action on EVAW, although
their credibility and momentum have been difficult to
sustain.
UN Women and its predecessor entities have also in-
troduced tools to keep track of EVAW-related activities
of the United Nations system and Member States. In
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services
general, there is a view that mechanisms for under-
standing, coordinating and tracking the efforts of
United Nations entities in the area of EVAW need to
be strengthened. Evaluation data indicated that UNiTE
contributed to coordinating VAW-related efforts inside
and outside the United Nations by outlining a set of
commonly agreed upon, broad priorities for VAW-
related work to which efforts of different actors could
contribute.
Efficiency/Organizational performance
As a new entity, UN Women faces challenges in
determining its structure, division of labour, commu-
nications and strategy to support EVAW. Evaluation
data indicated that UN Women’s current EVAW-related
efforts continue to be fragmented due to these chal-
lenges. Furthermore, UN Women’s practices and
systems did not support managing for results.
UN Women is strengthening a number of inherited
practices and systems to help institutionalize a culture
of RBM. As outlined in the strategic plan, such efforts
include internal knowledge management, results-
based planning, budgeting, monitoring and reporting,
and evaluation. These practices were at different
stages of development at the time of the evaluation
and, unsurprisingly, evidence pointed to gaps in these
systems and practices and their ability to meet the or-
ganizational needs of UN Women. These gaps limit UN
Women’s ability to easily access and report on EVAW-
related initiatives/projects and resources; understand
progress in EVAW and UN Women’s contributions to
that progress; and, internally share and learn from
good practices.
UN Women is experiencing the same resourcing
dilemmas faced by its predecessor entities. Financial
contributions have fallen far short of the resource re-
quirements which has affected its ability to fulfill its
mandate, implement workplans, sustain global EVAW
initiatives, and improve organizational practices and
systems that would enhance delivery and learning
on EVAW. UN Women is also expected to live-up to
some very high expectations. The financial situation
highlights the need for the international community
to step-up and provide the resources required by UN
Women. It also increases the need for UN Women to
9
adopt catalytic approaches and make stronger use of
partnerships, joint programming and other forms of
coordination in order to materialize EVAW programme
expectations.
Strategic positioning
There is a sense, both internally and externally, that
UN Women’s approach to implementing aspects
of its EVAW mandate – particularly with regards to
coordination– and the synergies between the norma-
tive, operational and coordination dimensions of its
mandate could be clearer. While external stakeholders
understand the broad areas of UN Women’s mandate,
they are not clear on how it is being operationalized.
Moreover, external stakeholders in the countries
visited were aware of the intentions to expand the
emphasis on operations, but were not yet clear on how
UN Women would go about it differently to its prede-
cessor entities.
The creation of UN Women enhanced the possibil-
ity of a more coordinated and coherent approach to
EVAW by bringing together different types of gender
and EVAW-related expertise and experience under one
roof. However, the current set of strategic documents
does not provide sufficient guidance in this regard. The
recent CSW demonstrated how UN Women’s three
mandate areas can come together around a particular
event in such a way that the whole becomes more than
its parts. The question then is how can UN Women
achieve similar synergy in its day-to-day operations?
Conclusions
As a new entity in the United Nations system, UN
Women has given continuity to the important EVAW-
related work of its predecessor entities, in particular
through the UN Trust Fund. The broad range of initia-
tives to support EVAW are, in general, enhancing the
global level normative frameworks, and supporting
national capacity to prevent VAW and provide services
to survivors. Initiatives and campaigns focusing on
prevention have helped raise the visibility of VAW, in-
creasing the awareness of and public support for EVAW
among decision makers, leaders and community mem-
bers. UN Women has also given substantive guidance
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services
on good practices and contributed to the development
of an evidence base. In addition, through formal inter-
agency coordination mechanisms, joint programmes,
convening and collaborative efforts, UN Women has
used its capacity to mobilize key actors in support of
intergovernmental bodies and mechanisms, and has
helped to effectively promote joint EVAW-related ac-
tion. Data collected through the evaluation process
provide positive feedback with regard to UN Women
and its predecessor entities’ contributions in these
areas, despite the lack of data on actual mid- and long-
term results.
The creation of UN Women and its recent successes
have created high expectations which should be
tempered in recognition of it still being a new entity.
UN Women’s broad mandate is still being defined,
and gaps in the operationalization of this mandate as
they relate to EVAW at the global and country level are
being filled. UN Women can do more to strategically
manage its mandate areas by seeking synergies and
taking advantage of expanded roles, particularly with
regard to coordination. It is still defining its niche and
ways of working at a time when it has still not received
initial financial commitments. In EVAW, as in other the-
matic areas, it is still in the process of defining what
it is best positioned to do, what it is most able to do
and how it will do it. Although UN Women has incor-
porated successful components of EVAW (such as the
UN Trust Fund and the UNiTE campaign) it still lacks a
coherent approach to managing these components so
as to maximize synergies and learning from the vari-
ous mechanisms.
UN Women lacks the appropriate systems that allow
it to manage for results, ascertain its performance,
capitalize on learning and make evidence-based
programming choices. UN Women is conscious of
the absence of systematic processes for the storage,
tracking and reporting on programmes and projects.
Furthermore, M&E practices and systems are not yet
robust enough to provide the evidence required for ac-
countability and learning purposes.
The present level of resourcing of UN Women presents
a reputational risk because the resources do not match
the expectations and this should be reflected in UN
Women’s EVAW strategy. Strategic and careful choices
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
10
need to be made about how UN Women engages in
the different mandate areas in order to maximize the
effectiveness of EVAW efforts. There is cautious opti-
mism following the agreed conclusions of CSW57 and
UN Women should seize the opportunity to build on
the momentum in the international community, while
recognizing the enormous impact particular national
and regional contexts will have.
Recommendations
The recommendations focus on maximizing UN
Women’s efforts and contributions in its three man-
date areas. While the recommendations are listed by
mandate area, the evaluation emphasized the impor-
tance of better synergy across the areas.
Strengthening normative support
for EVAW
Recommendation 1: UN Women should continue its
substantive inputs and evidenced-based work in sup-
port of enhanced normative frameworks. It should also
provide more guidance at the regional and country
level on how to translate normative work into opera-
tional work.
Strengthening coordination of and
accountability for EVAW
Recommendation 3: UN Women should further clarify,
operationalize and enhance its coordination mandate,
including the accountability dimension, at global, re-
gional and national levels in order to further EVAW.
Recommendation 4: UN Women should develop a
strategy or guidance document, for both internal and
external use, outlining its EVAW mandate and, key
priorities and approaches in EVAW to make its efforts
more coherent.
Practices, systems and resources to support
EVAW
Recommendation 5: UN Women should continue to
strengthen RBM practices, encompassing improved
monitoring and reporting, evaluation and knowledge
management.
Recommendation 6: UN Women should not only pur-
sue and encourage Member State contributions to
core resources, but develop creative ways of tapping
into the resources of other partners so that there is a
systemic approach to resourcing EVAW at the global,
regional and country levels.

Strengthening operational/programmatic
support for EVAW
Recommendation 2: UN Women’s country-level ac-
tivities should be more strategic. It must maximize the
benefits of its limited resources, work with partners,
be selective in terms of where to engage, work to
maximize buy-in of others, and use the leverage and
legitimacy that it has.

Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to

Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services 11
1.
BACKGROUND
1.1 Introduction
Evaluation Background, Objectives, Purpose and Scope
Violence against women (VAW) is one of the most
widespread violations of human rights. It includes
physical, sexual, psychological and economic abuse,
and cuts across boundaries of age, race, culture, wealth
and geography.
The United Nations defines violence against
women as “any act of gender-based violence
that results in, or is likely to result in,
physical, sexual or psychological harm or suf-
fering to women, including threats of such
acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty,
whether occurring in public or in private life.”
General Assembly resolution 48/104, Declaration on the
Elimination of Violence against Women (1993)
As defined in the evaluation’s Terms of Reference (see
Volume II, Appendix I), the scope of the evaluation
covers all dimensions of the United Nations Entity for
Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women’s
(UN Women) work addressing VAW, including inter-
governmental and normative support, and global,
regional and country programmes from 2008 to pres-
ent. It also includes UN Women’s contributions and
roles in the Secretary-General’s UNiTE to End Violence
against Women 2008-2015 campaign and the United
Nations Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate
Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund). Work on
VAW in conflict and post-conflict contexts was not in-
cluded as they are the subject of a separate evaluation
conducted in parallel.
The objectives of the evaluation were: i) to capture key
results and lessons learned from the contributions of
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services
UN Women’s four predecessor entities8 from 2008 to
2011 which UN Women has taken forward to support
countries in preventing VAW and expanding access to
related services, and ii) to analyze how well UN Women
is strategically positioned to implement its mandate of
normative, operational and coordination work in the
area of VAW. The evaluation was both retrospective
(2008-2011) and forward-looking (2011-2013).9
The intended primary users of the evaluation find-
ings are UN Women’s Executive Board and leadership,
and staff at headquarters, regional and country levels
working on ending violence against women (EVAW).
The evaluation is intended to inform future program-
ming and management decisions within UN Women
related to its normative, operational and coordination
mandates for EVAW.
1.2 Context
In July 2010, General Assembly resolution 64/289 es-
tablishing UN Women, the main roles of which are to:10
• Intergovernmental normative support: Support
Member States and intergovernmental bodies, such
as the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW),
formulate policies, global standards and norms;
• Operational work: Assist Member States implement
these standards, provide suitable technical and
financial support to requesting countries and forge
effective partnerships with civil society; and
8 The Division of the Advancement of Women (DAW), the
United Nations International Research and Training Institute
for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW), the United
Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the
Office of the Special Advisor on Gender Issues and the
Advancement of Women (OSAGI)
9 While UN Women was formally created in July 2010, it only
became operational in January 2011, following a transition
phase.
10 Taken from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/about-UN
Women/, accessed October 2012.
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
12
• Coordination: Hold the United Nations system
accountable for its own commitments on gender
equality, including regular monitoring of system-
wide progress.
These roles apply broadly throughout the entity and
specifically to EVAW-related work which is a thematic
priority. UN Women’s mandate includes those of its
predecessor entities and was also significantly ex-
panded by Member States, in particular in the area of
coordination. This new coordination role adds a new
and significant dimension of leading, coordinating and
promoting the accountability of the United Nations
system in its work on gender equality and the empow-
erment of women (GEEW).11 UN Women’s mandate is
therefore broader than those of its predecessor enti-
ties combined. Moreover, its governance and roles are
designed to achieve greater positioning of GEEW, the
entity and the potential for United Nations system-
wide impact.12
Goal: To prevent violence against women and girls and
expand access to services is UN Women’s corporate
goal 3, as reflected in its strategic plan (2011-2013). It is
also a priority issue in the work of the global norma-
tive bodies, especially the General Assembly, and UN
Women supports this work.
Structure: Five Divisions in UN Women’s Inter-
governmental Support and Strategic Partnership
Bureau and Policy and Programming Bureau (which
has a dedicated unit for EVAW), contribute to, manage
and/or coordinate its EVAW-related work.13 This in-
cludes the administration of the United Nations Trust
Fund to End Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund)14
11 Ibid.
12 General Assembly resolution 64/289, in particular general
principles (paragraphs 51-56) and governance of the entity
(paragraphs 57-67). See also Finding 11 for more discussion of
this issue.
13 The UN Women Divisions are: 1) Intergovernmental
Support Division; 2) United Nations System Coordination
Division; 3) Strategic Partnerships, Advocacy, Civil Society,
Communications, and Resource Mobilization Division; 4)
Policy Division (EVAW unit); and 5) Programme Division.
14 The UN Trust Fund was established in 1996 by the General
Assembly resolution 50/166. It is administered by UN Women
on behalf of the United Nations system and is a global mul-
tilateral grant paying mechanism that supports national and
local EVAW efforts.
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services
on behalf of the United Nations system and serving
as Secretariat for the Secretary-General’s UNiTE to End
Violence against Women campaign.
Resources: EVAW expenditure totalled $21 million and
$24 million in 2010 and 2011 respectively, including all
programme expenditure such as programme support
costs.15 Additional expenditures were incurred under
the UN Trust Fund.
1.3 Methodology
This corporate evaluation was managed by the UN
Women Evaluation Office. As detailed in the inception
report, the evaluation methodology was grounded in
human rights and gender equality principles, and was
guided by contribution analysis, a theory-based ap-
proach to evaluation aimed at making credible causal
claims about interventions and their results,16 and an
institutional and organizational assessment model.
The development of a reconstructed theory of change
was initiated in the inception phase which provided
a high-level preliminary results model (see Volume
II, Appendix II). It also led to discussions on the inter-
dependencies between UN Women’s three mandates,
influencing factors and assumptions.
External (peer/expert) reviewers were engaged sepa-
rately by Evaluation Office to provide strategic input
and advice during the evaluation. A reference group
was convened at headquarters to provide input and
guide the evaluation process. Reference groups were
also established in each country visited and included
UN Women field staff, government officials and, when
possible, representatives of local civil society. Reference
groups were given draft deliverables, and the oppor-
tunity to validate and provide comments. Evaluation
Office supported the evaluation process, including
quality assurance, and was kept informed of progress.
The evaluation included an inception phase (August
– October 2012), and data collection and reporting
15 UN Women, Progress made on the United Nations Entity for
Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women Strategic
Plan 2011-2013 (UNW/2012/4), report to the UN Women
Executive Board, 20 April 2012. Expenditure under administra-
tion and the UN Trust Fund not included.
16 John Mayne, “Contribution Analysis: Coming of Age?” in
Evaluation volume 18, number 3 (Sage, 2012).
13
phase (October 2012 – present). The data collection and
reporting phase included validation of the draft report,
which gave it a more forward-looking orientation. It
was supported by additional documentary research
and data collection, particularly with regard to the 57th
Session of the Commission on the Status of Women
(CSW57) in March 2013 that had EVAW as a thematic
focus.
Data methods and sources
The main sources of data for the evaluation were:
stakeholders, documents, databases, relevant literature
and country site visits. The evaluation team used a mix
of methods to collect and analyze data. Participatory
approaches were used where feasible, and were com-
plemented with quantitative and qualitative review
and observations. A total of 472 stakeholders17 were
consulted during the evaluation. The evaluation team
facilitated two working sessions with members of the
evaluation reference group and other UN Women staff
at headquarters. Individual and group interviews were
conducted in person, on the telephone or via online
telecommunications. An electronic survey, with open
ended and closed questions, was conducted among
UN Women staff in-country and in (sub)regional
offices. A survey summary is provided in Volume II,
Appendix VII. Relevant literature and documentation,
databases and other types of written information in-
cluding websites, were also reviewed and are listed in
Volume II, Appendix VI.
one local) participated in the country case study teams
and were briefed on the evaluation methodology and
interview guides. The country case study reports (see
Volume III, Appendices I to VII) summarize key obser-
vations and findings, as well as related background
information on the work of UN Women and its prede-
cessor entities in each country.
Challenges and mitigation strategies
As UN Women’s first corporate thematic evaluation,
this evaluation has been highly visible and there are
high expectations attached to it. It encompasses the
work of UN Women as a new entity and that of its pre-
decessor entities, balancing past and present activities
while looking into the future so as to be relevant for
decision makers today. A series of challenges arose
in the design and conduct of the evaluation relating
to the conceptual framework, timeframe and scope
exclusion, data availability, country case studies and
differentiating EVAW from other thematic areas or
from overall work on gender equality and the empow-
erment of women. These challenges, and the measures
taken to mitigate them, are detailed in Volume II,
Appendix VIII.

The evaluation team conducted seven one-week

country visits during which 340 stakeholders were con-
sulted.18 A pilot country visit to Jamaica was conducted
in October 2012 to test the methodology and inform
the selection of the remaining six country case stud-
ies. Countries were selected based on criteria agreed
by UN Women (see Table 1.1, p. 18) and included: Brazil,
Grenada, Guatemala, India, Morocco and Mozambique.
Two to three evaluators (one or two international and

17 Breakdown of stakeholders by method: 62 interviews, 70

survey respondents and 340 informants to the seven country
case studies.
18 Breakdown of stakeholders consulted through interviews
and/or focus group by country: Brazil (18); Grenada (12);
Guatemala (140); India (81); Jamaica (32); Morocco (29); and
Mozambique (28).

Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to

Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services 14
TABLE 1.1 Country selection criteria
Criteria
Total number of documented19
VAW-focused interventions
as captured by the portfolio
review
Diversity of types of program-
ming, i.e. country specific,
subregional, regional or global
(if applicable)
Type of VAW-related sub-
themes and/or programming
strategies
Level of documented
investment into VAW-specific
initiatives per country
United Nations country team
(UNCT) presence
Contextual features, e.g.
Delivering as One context;
geographic and population size;
economic and political contexts
Recommendations from UN
Women’s (sub)regional team’s
concerning i) a country’s poten-
tial to provide useful lessons/
insights20 and ii) the feasibility
of conducting a site visit within
the specified timeframe21
19 Documented initiatives refer to initiatives for which the evaluation team has at least one substantive document describing its focus,
envisaged results and/or progress.
20 Relating to, for example, the country’s relevance in view of ongoing preparations for the CSW in 2013.
21 With logistical support from UN Women in the respective country.
Criteria Application
Priority given to countries with a comparatively high
number of VAW-specific interventions compared
to others in the respective subregion. This was not
necessarily the country with the highest number
of interventions if other criteria justify selection of
another country.
Each selected country should allow for exploring
different types of interventions. Ideally, each selected
country should have had at least one country specific
intervention; been involved in (sub)regional and/
or global programme interventions; and had one or
more projects funded by the UN Trust Fund. Each
country must fulfill at least two of these criteria.
The criterion can influence the decision between two
or three potential countries, e.g. if one of them allows
exploring a thematic issue or strategy that would
otherwise not be captured by the overall sample of
countries.
Priority given to countries with (comparatively)
sizable investments. This criterion was applied in the
context of the other criteria however, e.g. in some
cases the total investment per country was high, as
a result of participating in joint programmes with
other United Nations entities.
Preference given to countries in which a UNCT is
present.
This criterion influenced the decision between two or
three potential countries and justified country selec-
tion. For example, a country may have been favorably
selected if it was part of the Delivering as One pilot.
Similarly, population size and economic status (low-
or middle-income) can indicate a country’s relevance
in the respective region.
Provided that several countries were deemed suitable
in light of the other criteria noted above, the selec-
tion was guided by justified recommendations from
the respective UN Women (sub)regional teams.
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services
Rationale
Site visits would focus on countries
where significant amounts of VAW-
related work have been carried out.
The overall sample of selected
countries would allow for an analysis of
characteristics and differences, as well
as synergies, between different types/
levels of programming.
The overall sample of selected countries
would allow for exploring most or all
of the key sub-themes identified in
the portfolio review, as well as most
or all of the key strategies/approaches
used by UN Women in its VAW-related
programming.
Site visits would focus on countries
where significant amounts of VAW-
related work have been carried out.
Given that the contextual features
of selected countries would differ
significantly, one common characteristic
would elicit information on issues
around United Nations coordination/
collaboration and related expectations.
The overall sample was to include both
low- and middle-income countries. Key
contextual features could provide (or
prohibit) additional opportunities for
learning.
In light of the evaluation’s aim to be
utilization-focused, the selection of
countries needed to take insights from
potential users of its findings and
recommendations into account. This
type of information could not be found
in the available documents.
15
2.
FINDINGS
2.1 UN Women: The challenges of a
new organization
Finding 1: UN Women is facing many of the challenges
new organizations often face pertaining to operational-
ization of its mandate, and establishing the systems and
level of resources to support such operationalization. This
is the lens through which progress made on EVAW must
be assessed.
Organizations experience different developmental
stages, with different challenges at each stage. The
start-up phase is typically characterized by a function
or mandate being given by an authorizing entity, and
appropriate leadership being identified. The new orga-
nization must then articulate and get buy-in to goals,
objectives and priorities, with effective leadership a key
element to ensuring success.
The next phase, implementation, brings a new set of
challenges. Key among these is outlining clear pro-
cedures for operationalizing the organization’s goals
and objectives, and systematizing these procedures by
putting in place policies, and developing appropriate
administrative and programming systems. As part of
this process, an appropriate organizational structure
must be developed. Another challenge relates to
resources, both human and financial. The new organi-
zation must get the right people in place to carry out
the tasks required and ensure that staff work together
smoothly on the various tasks. It must also secure
funding for the priority areas it has identified. Where
funding is limited, there is a dangerous temptation to
take any resources offered rather than those that can
be dedicated to the identified priority areas with the
risk that the organization is left grappling with mul-
tiple competing priorities.
UN Women is currently in the implementation stage
and thus in the process of: clarifying procedures for op-
erationalizing its goals and objectives; systematizing
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services
these procedures; developing an appropriate organi-
zational structure; and securing resources (particularly
financial). These are difficult challenges to meet, even
more so because UN Women is having to integrate its
predecessor entities into UN Women. Expectations
must therefore be kept in line with the scale of the
challenges being faced, challenges that are normal for
a new organization. At the same time, it is important
to be realistic about the work required to successfully
carry out the various tasks that are part of the imple-
mentation stage and to be strategic in using resources
most effectively to do so.
2.2 Influence of context on EVAW
Finding 2: EVAW-related work takes place in a dynamic
global, regional and national context where UN Women
is affected by multiple political, cultural and institutional
factors, including the impetus provided by CSW57 and the
nascent post-2015 development agenda. Such a context,
and the legitimacy of the organization’s mandate, pro-
vide opportunities and give rise to continuing challenges
to furthering the EVAW agenda.
The present context for EVAW is particularly dynamic,
offering a variety of opportunities and challenges for
UN Women’s work. Globally, there are opportunities
arising from the CSW57 which, by focusing on eliminat-
ing and preventing VAW, has provided an agreed-upon
basis for moving forward, and raised the profile and the
prospect of countries being held accountable to the in-
ternational community on the issues at hand. Further
impetus is provided by the post-2015 development
agenda, and the possibility that gender-based violence
(GBV) might be a thematic issue within that agenda.
Interviewees also highlighted the increased consensus
over the factors supporting success in EVAW, which
facilitates effective action. Some stakeholders also
noted significant challenges in the global context, in-
cluding limited resource availability and the resulting
competition to obtain these resources (exacerbated by
16

“UN Women is actively engaged in the
national consultations and is supporting the
participation of women’s and CSOs in these
consultations. UN Women is also helping to or-
ganize and support regional CSO consultations,
as well CSO consultations alongside the meet-
ings of the High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons.”
UN Women intranet, post-2015 development agenda, March 2013
the ongoing global financial crisis), as well as political
and social conservatism (which can lead to resistance
to the VAW agenda).
At the regional and country level, evaluation data from
document and literature reviews, stakeholder consul-
tations and country site visits underlined the diverse
contexts in which EVAW operational work is carried out
by UN Women and its predecessor entities. Yet, despite
the diversity, there are some similar challenges and
opportunities that emerge. Almost all respondents to
the UN Women staff survey (97 per cent) highlighted
culture and traditions as the factors most likely to
hinder progress in EVAW, a view that was confirmed
in the country case studies. More positively, 80 percent
of survey respondents rated the existing capacity of
women’s organizations and gender advocates in their
country as a factor supporting EVAW-related efforts.
Overall, evaluation data highlight the importance of
tailoring strategies and approaches for addressing
VAW to the country context, and of identifying and
drawing on regional similarities to develop and use re-
gional partnerships, networks, and intergovernmental
processes to support work on EVAW.
There is evidence of an increasingly favorable con-
text for EVAW within the United Nations system.
Stakeholders widely agreed that the global negotiation
process which led to the creation of UN Women was
beneficial in terms of raising the profile and visibility
of the need to actively promote and ensure women’s
rights. In turn, the creation of UN Women sends a
strong signal to the global community of the impor-
tance of EVAW and lends UN Women the legitimacy
to push forward its mandate on the issue. Its ability
to do so is furthered by the tools that have recently
been introduced for fostering greater coherence and
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services
holding the United Nations system to account on gen-
der equality and the empowerment of women. These
include the United Nations System-wide Action Plan
on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women
(UN-SWAP); recent directions provided by Member
States to ensure greater gender mainstreaming in
the context of the Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy
Review (QCPR); and the Secretary-General’s support
for EVAW through the UNiTE to End Violence Against
Women campaign (which runs until 2015) and the
Secretary-General’s database on VAW.
Finding 3: The EVAW work of UN Women and its prede-
cessor entities has been relevant and responsive in this
context, as evidenced by its congruence with global,
regional, and national commitments and priorities. This
constitutes a strong foundation upon which to build and
advance efforts to end VAW.
The relevance of UN Women’s work on the EVAW
agenda within the current context results partly
from the work of its predecessor entities, which were
themselves congruent with international commit-
ments, regional and national commitments and policy
BOX 2.1
Examples of international and regional
commitments to EVAW
International commitments:
• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW),
United Nations General Assembly (1979);
• Declaration on the Elimination of Violence
against Women, United Nations General
Assembly Resolution 48/104 (1993).
Regional commitments:
• Protocol to the African Charter on Human
and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women
in Africa, African Commission on Human and
People’s Rights (2003);
• Inter-American Convention on the Prevention,
Punishment, and Eradication of Violence
against Women, “Convention of Belem do
Para”, Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights (1994).
17
priorities (see sidebar). UN Women’s responsiveness to
EVAW and the existing global context is highlighted in
its strategic plan 2011-2013 which defines EVAW as a key
corporate goal (strategic goal number 3). The strategic
plan also requires regular and systematic reporting on
EVAW progress, and defines related indicators and tar-
gets at goal, outcome and output levels. Furthermore,
UN Women has sought to operationalize the idea that
human rights are interlinked and thus must be ad-
dressed in concert – a notion that leads to EVAW being
treated as a cross-cutting theme – by incorporating
the idea across its strategic plan and programming.
The case studies showed that UN Women has sought
to integrate efforts to reduce HIV and AIDS, and ad-
vance women’s political and economic empowerment
with VAW initiatives. Another proactive step is the 2011
policy agenda 16 Steps to End VAW, in which the UN
Women Executive Director outlined key elements of
UN Women’s policy agenda and gave Member States
strategic guidance on EVAW.
Other examples of the relevance and responsiveness of
UN Women’s work on EVAW include its participation in
UNCT joint programming and its engagement in gen-
der theme groups, efforts which align with the push
for coherence in gender equality within the United
Nations system. It also: supported General Assembly
resolutions on intensifying efforts to end all forms
of VAW (67/144 ) and trafficking in women and girls
(67/145); contributed to the development of UN-SWAP
(led by UN Women since July 2011), and contributed to
the Secretary-General’s UNiTE campaign and database
on VAW (which it has helped to update and populate).22
UN Women also supported CSW57 by: preparing
documentation based on research and expert group
meetings; reaching out to multiple stakeholders prior
to the meeting to ensure they were mobilized on the
different issues of the CSW priority theme; and con-
tributing to a conducive environment for negotiations
during the session. It also assisted the Commission’s
deliberations by drafting the Secretary-General’s two
reports on prevention of VAW, and services and re-
sponses, as well as by organizing two expert panels
during the formal session of the CSW. UN Women
22 Funding for the Secretary-General’s database is scheduled to
end in 2013.
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services
furthermore organized an expert group meeting on
Prevention of VAW and an online discussion. Finally,
UN Women successfully advocated for many innova-
tive elements to be included in the agreed conclusions
document which were sensitive to intergovernmental
contexts. The draft document presented to the CSW
Bureau had a strong focus on prevention, a relatively
new area of work in addressing VAW, with proposed
actions to address gender-based discrimination and
inequality, and responses and services for women and
girls subjected to violence. The final draft included
elements concerning gender-related killings and
the need to tackle issues such as cyberstalking and
cyberbullying.
UN Women is actively working with civil society groups
to safeguard the importance of gender in the post-
2015 development agenda. At the national level, case
studies found evidence of programmes being aligned
with national and, in some cases, regional priorities on
ending violence against women and girls. UN Women
therefore recognizes the need to tailor strategies and
approaches for addressing VAW to the country con-
text. UN Women has been less proactive and creative
in addressing the issue of limited resource availability,
instead focusing on many of the same strategies for
resource mobilization as its predecessor organizations,
with the same resultant challenges emerging (see
Finding 14 for more details).
2.3 Defining UN Women’s niche in
EVAW
Finding 4: UN Women is still in the process of defining its
niche within EVAW relative to other organizations (espe-
cially within the United Nations system) and how it will
add value to, and lead the work being done in the area.
This has implications for the effectiveness and impact of
its work.
UN Women has continued the EVAW-related work
of its predecessor entities, which has helped bridge
the transitional period. To move forward, however,
more strategic thinking to articulate the vision and
best overall strategy for advancing EVAW, and more
particularly for identifying UN Women’s particular
niche and added value, is required. There are multiple
organizations working on various forms of VAW from
18
different perspectives and angles. Since the creation
of UN Women, these organizations have reportedly
made strategic changes to align their work with, and
complement the work of, the new entity. Yet it is not
entirely clear how all these pieces fit together and it is
important to definitively determine what is not being
done, or what is not being done well, so as to deter-
mine how best to address these lacunas.
Existing data from the inventory of United Nations
system activities to prevent and eliminate VAW
(which collects data on 38 United Nations entities, the
International Organization for Migration [IOM] and
six inter-agency VAW-related efforts) can feed into
this process23. The Inventory provides a cumulative
overview of key types of activities and some results
achieved, yet it does not interpret or assess the data.
Other mechanisms for mapping and understand-
ing the work and capacities of other United Nations
entities include inter-agency committees and forums,
and mapping exercises. These mechanisms do not,
however, provide a full and in-depth picture of exist-
ing EVAW-related capacities, such as the comparative
strengths and established niches of other actors, in
particular other United Nations entities, intergovern-
mental bodies, Member States and civil society, nor do
they support robust decision-making by management
across the organization.
Most of UN Women’s predecessor entities did not have
a clearly defined or articulated approach to EVAW,
implicitly or explicitly, outlined in their strategies
making the task even more difficult. The comparative
advantage of these predecessor entities lay in their
substantive contributions to intergovernmental pro-
cesses, their adoption of a partnership approach and
their flexibility, all of which allowed them to make clear
contributions to EVAW (as documented in evaluations)
without having a clearly identified or demonstrated
23 Volume II, Appendix XII provides an overview of the types of
activities of the principle agencies working on EVAW, based
primarily on information from the inventory. The inventory
is available from http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/
vaw/v-inventory.htm.
24 See for example United Nations Office for Internal Oversight
Services (OIOS), Evaluation of the Office of the Special Adviser
on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women (OSAGI) and the
Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), 2011.
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services
niche.24 The case studies of this evaluation showed
that leadership on EVAW in the UNCT was sometimes
undertaken by other United Nations entities (espe-
cially the United Nations Population Fund [UNFPA] and
United Nations Children’s Fund [UNICEF]) due to, for
example, the limited UN Women or UNIFEM presence
in particular countries.
Data collected during the course of this evaluation
showed a willingness among United Nations entities
to give UN Women space to determine how to best fit
into this landscape and add value. It has also shown
that effecting change on EVAW requires a holistic and
integrative approach to programming that does not
address violence in isolation from other factors, such
as economic factors and the general human rights sit-
uation of women (as discussed in Finding 3). Since UN
Women’s mandate has many dimensions and multiple
organizational goals (e.g. economic empowerment of
women), it has the possibility of contributing to the
design of such integrative or holistic approaches to
addressing EVAW. Adopting such an approach can help
it assess the efforts of other organizations working to
EVAW.
2.4 UN Women’s three mandate
areas: Contributions to EVAW?
Finding 5: UN Women’s work effectively builds and
expands upon the work of its predecessor entities to
enhance the normative frameworks of VAW. It does so
by giving substantive guidance on good practices and
standards, developing an evidence base, and using its
capacity to mobilize various key actors in support of in-
tergovernmental bodies and mechanisms.
UN Women has given continuity to the significant con-
tributions made by DAW and OSAGI in supporting the
normative role of United Nations intergovernmental
processes and mechanisms related to EVAW, particu-
larly the General Assembly, the Economic and Social
Council, CSW and the Security Council.25 While prede-
cessor entities did not have an exclusive EVAW-focus,
their contributions in the following areas were particu-
larly noted: the annual General Assembly resolutions on
25 The contributions of DAW and OSAGI are well documented in
the OIOS evaluation report.
19
intensifying efforts to eliminate all forms of VAW since
2006 (with the exception of 2011); the development
of indicators to measure VAW, in coordination with
the United Nations Statistics Division; the Secretary-
General’s database on VAW; and publications to assist
Member States adopt good legislative practices on
VAW. UN Women’s furthering of this work can be seen
in its support of General Assembly resolutions 67/144
and 67/145, and most recently in contributing to the
success of CSW57. The conclusions agreed upon at the
CSW57 are the first on EVAW in 15 years, and call on
Member States to take a broad range of measures to
tackle VAW around the world. The conclusions stress
prevention, and focus on underlying causes and risk
factors of violence; introduced the term “survivor” in
addition to “victim;” stress the importance of better
data collection and analysis; and identify the potential
of information and communications technology (ICTs)
and new media/social media (in positive and negative
ways), all within a framework of women’s human rights.
Providing substantive guidance on good
practices and standards
UN Women and its predecessor entities have provided
quality issues papers, notes and other technical docu-
ments to inform General Assembly resolutions, and
the reports and discussions at the recent CSW. UN
Women not only drew upon the expertise of its staff
but also harnessed the expertise of specialists who
participated in expert groups to contribute to the re-
ports of the Secretary-General on the priority theme of
the CSW57.
In addition, UN Women issued the Handbook for
National Action Plans on Violence Against Women
(2012). The Handbook built on DAW’s success in gath-
ering current knowledge on effective policy for the
prevention of and response to VAW contained in the
earlier handbook Legislative and Policy Frameworks
(which included a supplement on harmful practices).
It also demonstrates how Member States have de-
veloped and implemented such policies in their own
contexts.26
26 Available in Arabic, English, French, Russian and Spanish from
www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/vaw/v-handbook.htm. It is
accompanied by a series of videos introducing the model
framework and its key provisions.
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services
Developing an evidence base
In addition to technical papers and other documents,
UN Women has contributed to the Secretary-General’s
database on VAW, which helps to underpin the debate
within and beyond the United Nations system on key
related policy issues.27 Since its inception in 2009, ap-
proximately 132 countries have populated the database
with relevant legislation on VAW.28 The database is also
a valuable repository of information on global VAW
legislation thanks to the ongoing input of Member
States, as mandated by the General Assembly, and
has been funded by Member States though funding is
coming to an end, which presents challenges for this
initiative. The inventory of United Nations system ac-
tivities in ending VAW is another example of how UN
Women has helped to develop an evidence base (see
Finding 4 above).
Mobilizing key actors
The recent CSW57 illustrates how UN Women has built
on the capacities of its predecessor entities to convene
stakeholders in support of intergovernmental process-
es. Other examples of its role as a convener include:
• Regular expert group meetings on VAW. Convened
with other United Nations entities, these meetings
brought together experts in the field of VAW, gener-
ated literature on legal and practical frameworks
to address issues such as harmful practices and
domestic violence, and made recommendations on
legislation and good practices on VAW issues.29 The
most recent expert group meeting was organized in
September 2012 in preparation for CSW57.
• A participatory process and close work with other
United Nations entities in the lead up to CSW57
which was largely regarded as successful by
interviewees.
• Regional preparatory meetings co-hosted by UN
Women in collaboration with either Member States,
regional commissions or regional intergovernmen-
tal organizations.
27 Evidence of use is reported in the OIOS evaluation report (2011),
p. 24 and was referenced in some stakeholder interviews.
28 Available from http://sgdatabase.unwomen.org/home.action.
29 The meeting in 2008 prepared a model framework for legisla-
tion on VAW that was taken forward and further developed in
subsequent expert group meetings.
20
• Civil society participation in the preparations for
CSW57 through online consultations (July-August
2012) and regional non-governmental organization
(NGO)-CSW committees that prepared shadow
documents, as well as the significant number of
NGO participants in the CSW57 session itself.30
• UN Women’s COMMIT Initiative, which asked
governments to announce specific new measures
to end VAW and resulted in responses from 54
governments.
Finding 6: UN Women and its predecessor entities provid-
ed technical inputs and funding to governments and civil
society partners, resulting in new or strengthened VAW-
related national legal frameworks, policies and action
plans. While these frameworks constitute an important
step in enhancing national capacities for addressing VAW,
implementation remains a challenge in many countries
due to various political, institutional and resource factors.
The normative support function of UN Women and its
predecessor entities at the global level is followed-up
through operational work in countries, a considerable
proportion of which aims to align national legal frame-
works with international agreements with regard to
women’s human rights. Between 2008 and 2011, an
increased number of governments adopted laws tar-
geting VAW.31 As of 2012, 125 countries are reported to
have laws that penalize domestic violence.32
Data sources confirm UN Women’s and its predecessor
entities’ contributions to policy development, though
it is important to underline that the policy changes
cannot be attributed to these entities alone. The table
in Volume II, Appendix X highlights key policy changes
that have taken place in case study countries and in
which stakeholders confirm plausible contributions
from UN Women and its predecessor entity UNIFEM.
30 More than 2,800 representatives from 595 organizations at-
tended the CSW57 – the highest number ever recorded.
31 DAW, “Eliminating Violence against Women: 15 years after the
Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action”, in Words to Action:
Newsletter on Violence against Women, issue 8, July 2010.
32 UN Women press release, UN Women Executive Director
Launches New Initiative to Spotlight National Commitments
to End Violence against Women, 20 November 2012. Available
from http://tinyurl.com/cfg4d4d
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services
How did UN Women and its predecessor
entities make contributions in this area?
The translation of the global-level normative work
on EVAW into national legal frameworks has been
facilitated by UN Women through participatory and
consultative processes aiming to:
Support governments develop or revise laws, policies
and action plans on gender equality and/or EVAW, as
well as national development and poverty reduction
strategies. To this end, UN Women and UNIFEM either
provided direct technical assistance to legislators/
decision makers to write the documents and/or par-
liamentarians to review proposals of law, or assisted
NGOs develop proposals of law;
• Support governments monitor compliance with
international commitments by providing technical
assistance in writing country reports on the
implementation of CEDAW, financial resources to
attend meetings or prepare documents for global
intergovernmental fora, such as CSW and CEDAW.
• Support women’s organizations and gender
advocates, either financially and/or technically, in
efforts to: develop new laws or modify existing
laws; monitor national EVAW commitments
conducted through shadow reports for CEDAW;
develop guidance on monitoring and evaluation
(M&E) frameworks and tools; participate in global
forums for advancing women’s rights; monitor or
budget for implementation (opinion surveys and
the creation of observatories and databases related
to this effort were also supported by UN Women
and UNIFEM); and ensure the implementation of
legal and/or policy commitments through training
to enhance the knowledge of judges, police, and
other service providers on existing laws and policies
related to VAW.
• Support parliamentarians or other actors monitor
the implementation of new laws and policies in
support of EVAW. For example, if new courts special-
izing in femicide are being created, are they being
made available to women in different parts of the
country, and if not, what are the barriers?
• Directly provide training to enhance the knowledge
of judges, police and other service providers on
existing laws and policies related to VAW.
21
The importance of laws, policies and action plans deal- that did not include costing of strategies or account-
ing with VAW as a powerful force for social change was ability mechanisms to foster effective implementation
confirmed through the literature reviewed,33 thus con- of those plans and strategies.
firming the relevance of UN Women’s work in this area.
Finding 7: UN Women’s funding and technical support
Yet evidence suggests that changes on the ground
has contributed to expanding access to services for VAW
have often not yet taken place or are in early stages
survivors at the country level. However, UN Women has
because implementation of these policy instruments
not tracked the long-term effects of interventions in
remains a challenge.
terms of the number and/or quality of available services,
or their actual use by and benefits for survivors of VAW.
What are factors hindering
implementation of policy change? As noted in the Secretary-General’s report to the
recent CSW, despite considerable progress on EVAW
Data collection, particularly from the case studies, re-
over the past 30 years, significant gaps and limita-
vealed a variety of factors hindering implementation
tions continue to exist in terms of the availability and
of policy change. These include gaps in national actors’
quality of services for women and girls subjected to
capacities (in particular limited financial and human
violence.34 UN Women and its predecessor entities
resources to implement and coordinate efforts) and
have been addressing some of the challenges by work-
sometimes a lack of political will at the highest levels
ing to enhance both the demand for, and the supply
of government. For instance, in Mozambique the gov-
of, VAW-related services. The two-pronged approach
ernment’s reliance on external funding to implement
of addressing both the demand and the supply side
its programmes has reduced incentives for it to look
of services simultaneously has been commonly used
for sustainable strategies for the implementation of its
at the country level. Yet the case studies show that
programmes. Challenges in coordinating efforts either
it is not always clear whether this dual focus derived
among ministries in India, Morocco and Mozambique,
from a deliberate and strategic decision and, if it did, to
and between federal and state/municipal authorities
what extent it was intentional. Similarly, UN Women
in Brazil, were noted.
and UNIFEM have had small roles in ensuring access
UN Women’s predecessor entities were sometimes not to services, whereas actors such as UNFPA, invested
able to provide appropriate support to accompany the considerable resources and as a result are often seen
policy and legal process from design and approval to as the lead agency. Available data illustrate successful
implementation. The case studies identified several in- and relevant individual initiatives that contributed,
ternal factors for this, some of which have carried over or are likely to contribute to, the quality, number and
to UN Women through the transition period. These reach of services for VAW survivors, and the existing
include staffing issues in Brazil and India (in particu- demand for and uptake of such services. It is, however,
lar, both staff turnover and contract limitations have much more difficult to establish how these specific
implications for retaining staff with both the expertise contributions affect the larger picture of changes in
and network of contacts required at a strategic level of the scale and quality of services in different countries.
government in order to focus on upstream work at the
policy level); the adoption of project versus program-
matic approaches in several countries, with related
short-term project timelines making it difficult to see
through the policy change; and in Mozambique, sup-
port in the development of strategies or action plans

33 Mala Htun and S. Laurel Weldon “The Civic Origins of 34 Economic and Social Council Commission on the Status of
Progressive Policy Change: Combating Violence Against Women, Multisectoral Services and Responses for Women and
Women in Global Perspective, 1975-2005”; in American Girls Subjected to Violence, report of the Secretary-General (E/
Political Science Review vol. 106, issue 3 (August 2012), p. 551. CN.6/2013/3), December 2012.

Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to

Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services 22
Contributions to strengthening the demand
for services
Most efforts to strengthen the demand for services
aimed to raise women’s (and the general public’s)
awareness of their human rights, and of the types and
location of services available in their country. For exam-
ple, technical and/or financial support was provided to
government or civil society to promote services such
as call-in numbers to provide guidance to women
on where to go to access legal, health and other ser-
vices.35 In some cases, there was a dramatic increase
in the number of calls fielded by such call-in numbers.
Similarly, UN Women and UNIFEM provided funding to
help disseminate information on new legislation and
its implications for the perpetrators of violence, thus
fostering the demand for specialized justice or legal
services.
Contributions to strengthening the supply
of services
In terms of the supply of services, UN Women and its
predecessor entities have contributed to:
• Expanding the type of available services through
pilot services such as introducing social workers
into the family sections of the justice courts in
Morocco; creating the Office of Domestic Violence
of the Supreme Court in Argentina; transforming
the “Bashingantahe” in Burundi (a traditional
institution for conflict resolution reserved for men
that now also combats VAW); and expanding service
centres addressing VAW in Rwanda.
• Improving the quality of available services, in par-
ticular by strengthening the awareness, knowledge
and skills of relevant (state and non-state) actors
responsible for the delivery of VAW-related services,
including referral services (one-stop centers), and
justice and health services.
• Expanding the reach of services to the most
excluded or vulnerable women, such as indigenous
35 As reported in the Brazil case study, “use of the service net-
work’s hotline to enquire specifically about the Maria da
Penha Law had steadily increased since the adoption of the
Law until 2009 (48,087 calls were received in 2007, 118,372 in
2008 and 171,714 in 2009), However, this number fell in 2010,
when only 82,170 calls were received.”
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services
women in Guatemala; women with HIV and AIDS
living in remote areas of Morocco; socially excluded
women survivors of VAW and women rescued from
trafficking in India.
Data on how expanded services affect VAW
survivors
Existing UN Women data provide either no or only very
limited evidence of the long-term effects of individual
initiatives, including their sustainability (e.g. in the
case of piloted new services), uptake or positive effects
on VAW survivors. Reasons for this include the absence
of baseline data and of ongoing and long-term moni-
toring and/or rigorous evaluation, and that several
initiatives reviewed were relatively new making it dif-
ficult to draw conclusions about long-term effects.
Finding 8: As a result of training, organizational
strengthening and other capacity development efforts,
UN Women has contributed to strengthening the capaci-
ties of relevant national actors. Yet questions remain about
the sustainability of these initiatives, particularly because
capacity enhancements are often not institutionalized.
UN Women and UNIFEM engaged in a large number
of relevant and effective efforts to strengthen the
capacity of national actors to address VAW-related
issues. According to surveyed UN Women staff, most
capacity-building efforts are directed at national
government partners, NGOs and gender advocates (il-
lustrated in Figure 2.1). There have also been increased
efforts to work with relevant actors in the justice,
police and health sectors, parliamentarians, the media,
and religious and traditional community leaders, in
particular with regards to monitoring and influenc-
ing the implementation of informal/customary laws
relative to VAW. Contributions have also been made
to the development of global initiatives such as the
Virtual Knowledge Centre to End Violence Against
Women and Girls, an online resource encouraging and
supporting evidence-based programming to more
efficiently and effectively design, implement, moni-
tor and evaluate initiatives to prevent and respond to
violence against women and girls. It gives policy mak-
ers, programme implementers and other practitioners
access to leading tools and evidence on what works
to address violence against women and girls. These
include 10 evidence-based programming guides in
23
Figure 2.1
Survey of UN Women staff: Contributions to strengthening capacities
STRENGTHENING THE CAPACITY
OF “OTHER” ACTORS
STRENGTHENING THE CAPACITY
OF NGOS AND GENDER ADVOCATES
STRENGTHENING THE CAPACITY
OF NGOS AND GENDER ADVOCATES
0% 10%
Note: ‘Other actors’ include media, political parties, parliamentarians, traditional community leaders and United Nations
entities. The total number of respondents was 66.
BOX 2.2
The Virtual Knowledge Centre to End
Violence Against Women and Girls
UN Women systematically tracks internet traffic
to the Virtual Knowledge Centre and conducts
annual user surveys to elicit more specific infor-
mation on the backgrounds, needs and interests
of actual users, find out how they had used dif-
ferent types of information and elicit suggestions
for improvements.
Since its launch in March 2010 until the end
of 2011, the Virtual Knowledge Centre had over
270,000 users from 221 countries and territories.
The majority of users (55 percent) were affiliated
with NGOs and CSOs. Nearly 70 per cent of users
represented low- and middle-income countries.
Approximately 32 per cent of all users returned
repeatedly. Results from the one year monitor-
ing survey demonstrated that nearly all survey
respondents (95 percent), across all language
versions, found the site useful to their initiatives
with 83 per cent indicating that they had applied
the content of the site in their work. Examples
include contributions to a radio programme and
course on reporting on VAW in Colombia, costing
of the GBV national action plan in the Seychelles,
and a curriculum on masculinities for primary
and secondary students in Kenya.
36%
91%
79%
20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Percentage of survey respondents (%)
English, French and Spanish and a database of over
900 tools for implementation. The Virtual Knowledge
Centre draws on expert recommendations, policy and
programme evaluations and assessment, and practi-
tioner experience from around the world.
Improved capacities to provide services
The seven country case studies provide examples of
specific efforts and achievements of UN Women’s
predecessor entities to strengthen national partners’
VAW-specific knowledge and skills, and their broader
organizational capacities (e.g. related to effectively
engaging in advocacy work).36
An example of such an effort is the Strengthening
State Accountability (SSA) project in Grenada, which
strengthened the response of police to VAW. Several
police officers and prosecutors in the Royal Grenada
Police Force were trained as trainers, and eight instruc-
tors from the Police Training School were also instructed
in prosecution methods and approaches. Some were
also sent on international and regional internships and
training. Internship programmes on managing domes-
tic violence and sexual offence cases were established.
Several officers attended a domestic violence course
and internship programme in 2011 at the Algonquin
Police College in Ottawa (Canada), where they learnt
36 The positive achievements are detailed as reported by stake-
holders and there is often no documented evidence to either
support or contradict their feedback.
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services 24
interviewing and interrogation techniques, how to
deal appropriately with child witnesses, proper use of
firearms and how to manage aggressors.37 Integrating
VAW concerns into the regular training curriculum for
police officers and training in-house trainers in the
police force are positive examples of institutionalizing
VAW-related capacity development, as opposed to fo-
cusing on one-off trainings.
How were contributions made?
Contributions were made through funding of, for ex-
ample, training, staff recruitment, and development of
information materials, as well as creating opportuni-
ties for actors to come together at both national and
subregional levels. These opportunities facilitated
national processes for bringing government and non-
government actors together; supported subregional
networking among government and/or civil society;
and supported national actors’ participation in and
contribution to global events such as the CSW.
Sustaining capacity improvements
The evaluation found little evidence of sustained ca-
pacity improvements, in part due to the limited data
on long-term and cumulative effects of efforts to build
capacity. Capacity development is also sometimes an
implicit focus of initiatives that have other primary
objectives. For example, when working with national
women’s machineries to develop national action
plans for VAW, the focus is on developing those plans
rather than capacity development. Training is one of
the primary means of building capacity, yet training
events often lack the follow-up to support and bet-
ter understand the extent of institutionalization of
such training. As a result, in most of the case studies
there are examples of training and other capacity
development initiatives that have been time bound or
one-off activities without follow-up or other measures
to ensure their sustainability. There are some notable
exceptions, such as the SSA project in Grenada.
There are also external factors affecting the potential
for sustained capacity improvements. Government
and NGO partners face challenges to generate the
37 Ministry of Social Development, Draft National Strategic
Action Plan to Reduce Gender-Based Violence in Grenada 2012
-2017, p. iv.
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services
financial resources required to sustain improvements.
In other cases, a government agency’s status some-
times limited the financial/political support from
other government branches and its ability to lead and
guide other national actors on VAW-related efforts,
which reflects, for example, the situation of many of
the national women’s machineries.
Finding 9: UN Women has supported initiatives and
campaigns focusing on prevention. Field work suggests
that these have raised the visibility of VAW at the country
level, and have increased the awareness of and public
support for EVAW among decision makers, leaders and
community members. For the most part, however, UN
Women has not systematically monitored or evaluated
the effect such efforts have in contributing to changes in
attitudes and behaviors related to VAW.
Prevention has been an important dimension of UN
Women’s EVAW work. As defined in UNIFEM’s EVAW
strategy (2008-2013), A Life Free of Violence: Unleashing
the Power of Women’s Empowerment and Gender
Equality, prevention focuses on “transforming discrimi-
natory social attitudes, norms and practices, through
sustained multi-faceted and mutually-reinforcing
interventions that tackle root causes, protective and
risk factors.”38 It further notes that prevention related
efforts should aim to work with strategic groups “such
as men and adolescents.”39 These relevant but broad
directions do not appear to have been adopted by UN
Women or translated into more specific guidance for
programming at UN Women.40
Raising awareness has been a key strategy in various
components of UN Women’s EVAW work. UN Trust
38 UNIFEM, A Life Free of Violence: Unleashing the Power of
Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality, Strategy 2008-
2013 (2008), p.9. Available from http://www.unifem.org/
attachments/products/UNIFEM_EVAW_Strategy_2009.pdf.
39 Ibid. p.11.
40 Steps included a memorandum of understanding with
MenEngage, a global alliance of men and women working
with boys and men for gender equality, to advance global, re-
gional and country-level work with organizations specializing
in men, masculinities and gender equality; a 250 page in-
depth module on ‘how-to’ work with men and boys in English,
French and Spanish, including promising practice examples
from across the globe and tools; and a guidance note for field
offices on prevention.
25
Fund grantees, UN Women and its predecessor entities,
the UNiTE campaign and the Say NO - UNiTE to End
Violence against Women social mobilization initiative,
carried out a broad variety of activities at the global,
regional and country levels geared towards raising
public awareness and/or commitment to EVAW, and
to engaging key actors with the potential to influence
perceptions of VAW and related behaviours. Of the UN
Women staff surveyed, 94 per cent stated that working
to increase awareness to reduce tolerance for violence
was an area of work in their respective country during
the period under review. No other area of work present-
ed in the survey was selected by as many respondents.
There are numerous examples of innovative and cre-
ative approaches being used to raise awareness, such
as sports games in Brazil and Mozambique, and social
media as part of the Say NO – UNiTE initiative. While
usually addressing all forms of violence, some coun-
tries’ efforts focused on a particular form of violence,
such as domestic violence. In Morocco, for example,
a survey highlighted the magnitude of the problem,
and Mozambique and Brazil both passed new laws on
domestic violence.
Say NO–UNiTE to End Violence against Women social
mobilization initiative: Say NO-UNiTE showcases
global advocacy efforts, engaging participants through
online media outreach, web-based tools and social
media networks. While the initiative began as an on-
line signature campaign, it evolved into an elaborate
interactive advocacy platform that captures global,
national and local efforts. By 2013, 73 Heads of State
and government ministers, almost 700 parliamen-
tarians and almost 1000 CSOs had signed on to Say
NO-UNITE.41 Reports indicated that civil society groups
have used their respective government’s signature of
Say NO-UNiTE as a lever to push for specific actions on
VAW.
Working with Men and Boys: Initiatives working
with men and boys have ranged from encouraging
important personalities to form part of networks of
male leaders (as part of the UNiTE campaign), to fund-
ing or providing technical support for more tailored
interventions. In Mozambique, for example, UNIFEM
41 More information available from http://saynotoviolence.org/
about-say-no.
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services
supported three initiatives to work with men and boys,
namely: Rede Homens Pela Mudança (Network of Men
for Change), the television programme Homem que
é Homem (Man-to-Man Initiative) and the training
of celebrities and champions to end violence against
women and girls.
These initiatives were found to: i) provide a way to reach
men more easily; ii) create spaces for men to talk about
VAW and masculinity; iii) contribute to making VAW
an acceptable topic for public discourse (as shown by
requests to produce the television programme at the
community level); and iv) contribute to making VAW
more visible in the media (as shown by VAW-coverage
in national newspapers, the re-broadcast of the tele-
vision programme on two channels and free airtime
provided for the television programme).
While confirming the relevance and success of indi-
vidual initiatives in relation to their immediate goals,
the lack of related M&E data42 and the long-term
nature of prevention-related changes make it impos-
sible to assess the overall effectiveness of UN Women’s
interventions to prevent VAW. In several countries,
UN Women has identified a gap in data on changing
norms and behaviors and the extent to which VAW is
tolerated. Such data are necessary as an evidence base
to assess social transformations. In order to close this
gap, UN Women is supporting countries to improve
available data. The UN Women Executive Director’s
2012 report noted an improved availability and quality
of data, including of peoples’ attitudes and perceptions
toward VAW, and measurement of the effectiveness of
VAW interventions in 21 countries at the end of 2012.43
Despite the lack of data to confirm progress towards
social transformation, stakeholders agreed that rais-
ing awareness and other prevention-related efforts
are a highly relevant element of EVAW work. Indeed,
even in the absence of corroborating data on changes
42 During the inception phase, the evaluation team found
limited documentation on interventions, including on the
results of these interventions. For instance, only nine evalua-
tions were available out of the 67 interventions reviewed and
there was no documentation for 51 interventions (27 per cent
of total interventions) recorded in ATLAS.
43 UN Women, (Draft) Executive Director’s Annual Report, 2012,
p. 14.
26
 BOX 2.3
Good practice: Global Safe Cities initiative
Inspired by more than 40 years of grassroots wom-
en’s activism at city and neighborhood level, and
pilot programmes supported through the UN Trust
Fund to end VAW and UN Women’s regional pro-
gramme in Latin America and Caribbean, the global
programme Safe Cities Free of Violence Against
Women and Girls was launched in November 2010.
The United Nations Human Settlements Programme
(UN-Habitat) is the lead United Nations entity, with
other global and local partners. It was launched in
five pilot cities: Quito (Ecuador), New Delhi (India),
Kigali (Rwanda), Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea)
and Cairo (Egypt). The programme promises to be
the first ever global comparative effort aimed at
developing and evaluating model approaches across
different settings, which can be widely disseminated
to policymakers, civil society, and international and
regional agencies for adaptation and scaling-up,
tailored to specific local contexts.
The programme focuses on VAW in urban public
places, with a particular emphasis on the prevention
of sexual harassment and other forms of sexual vio-
lence. Cities are developing evidence-based model
approaches which include: gender sensitive
Source: UN Women, Global Safe Cities Initiative brief http://saynotoviolence.org/sites/default/files/Brief Safe Cities Global Initiative CSW.pdf
in attitudes, norms or behaviors in the seven country
cases, national stakeholders indicated that support
provided by UN Women and UNIFEM to awareness-
raising activities, had contributed to raising the
visibility of and support for the fight against VAW.
They also noted that changing the perceptions and at-
titudes of the broader public was a long-term process
that would take decades and involve the combined
efforts of many actors.
Finding 10: UN Trust Fund grantees have also made sub-
stantial and innovative contributions in preventing VAW,
expanding survivor access to services and creating an
institutional response to VAW at the country level. These
activities have complemented UN Women’s operational
EVAW-related work.
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services
changes to the built environment; implementation
of women’s safety audits; review and development
of policies and laws; implementation of gender
budgeting; working with men and boys; public
awareness campaigns; and building partnerships
between local governments and grassroots women,
the private sector and other CSOs, etc. Every city pro-
gramme includes evidence collection at each step of
programme design, implementation and evaluation.
Since its launch in 2010, the programme has expanded
to additional cities, where it works in partnership with
UNICEF and UN-Habitat. These include: Greater Beirut
(Lebanon), Dushanbe (Tajikistan), metro Manila (The
Philippines), Marrakech (Morocco), Nairobi (Kenya), Rio
de Janeiro (Brazil), San José (Costa Rica) and Tegucigalpa
(Honduras). In 2013, in line with UN Women’s uni-
versal mandate, cities from developed countries, led
by Dublin (Ireland) and Sakai (Japan), are joining the
Global Safe Cities Initiative to share their knowledge
and strengthen their programming to prevent VAW
in public spaces. In some of these countries, some
early successes have already been achieved in terms of
changes in local-level policies, raised social awareness
and increased government accountability.
The scope of this thematic evaluation covers the UN
Trust Fund due to UN Women’s role as administrator of
the Fund. As captured in the mapping of outcomes of
UN Trust Fund grantees,44 grantee organizations have
made important contributions in the areas of preven-
tion, access to services and institutional response to
violence.
44 UN Women, UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women -
Mapping of Grantees’ Outcomes (2006 to mid-2011), 2011.
27
Prevention
The majority of UN Trust Fund grantees’ outcomes
focus on primary prevention, particularly to changes
in the knowledge or behaviour of a social actor.45
Campaigns were also used to overcome the belief
that domestic violence is a private affair. The Bell Bajao
campaign, for example, is an award-winning initia-
tive of the Breakthrough Trust in India which received
funding from the UN Trust Fund from 2007-2010.
Breakthrough used an innovative media campaign
involving well-known actors and was later able to raise
more funds and scale-up the campaign. Most notably,
an organization in Viet Nam working in the area of
domestic violence and HIV prevention expressed their
intention to replicate the initiative.46
“In front of my house, there is a family that
drags the woman by her hair. They drag her
near the gas and say ‘burn yourself.’ They don’t
give her food. In winters I see her without
warm clothes. In summers she has no fan. She
stays locking [sic] a room, like a prisoner. After
watching the Bell Bajao ads, we started mak-
ing some noise every time we heard violence.
The violence used to stop for the time being.
Eventually it stopped entirely. I did feel good
about helping her. Earlier I used to feel helpless
around her. Now she’s happy, so I am happy. It
was like helping my own child. I want to thank
Bell Bajao for inspiring me to take action.”
Bell Bajao project (India): Pramod Tiwari, government worker in
India quoted on the Bell Bajao website. Available from http://
www.bellbajao.org/about/
Access to services
The outcome mapping exercise also records the out-
comes of grantee work to give survivors’ access to
services immediately after violence has occurred. The
45 Of the 636 primary prevention outcomes, 60 per cent are
aimed at changes in the knowledge or behavior of social ac-
tors. Ibid. p. 11.
46 Further information was not available about the organization
or whether the model was indeed replicated. Ibid. p. 27.
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services
study reports that most of the outcomes concerned
justice services, whereby grantees influenced changes
in policy and law enforcement (through the creation
of gender desks that offer training on violence) and
the quality of assistance provided by courts and pros-
ecutors. Such assistance aims to increase acceptance
of the legitimacy of VAW cases and the filing of such
cases, and contribute to the creation of a pool of legal
psychologists and pro bono lawyers. Grantees also con-
tributed to improving legal assistance, and increasing
the number of victims and families who report cases
and communities’ support for justice.
Institutional response
UN Trust Fund grantees engaged with governments
to increase their commitment to EVAW. Evidence from
the outcome mapping study suggests that grantees
have influenced government actors as illustrated by
strengthened government leadership and political
will (gaining verbal statements or other expressions
of commitment from government), and government
budgetary commitments for EVAW among other areas.
Finding 11: At the global, regional and national levels, UN
Women has facilitated joint action by partners on EVAW.
However, its larger mandate for coordination and promot-
ing accountability of the United Nations system requires
further clarification, especially in terms of approaches.
General Assembly resolution 64/289 established the
mandate of UN Women and specifies that the new
entity shall consolidate the mandates and functions
of its predecessor entities with the “additional role of
leading, coordinating and promoting the accountabil-
ity of the United Nations system in its work on gender
equality and the empowerment of women.”47 The res-
olution thus focuses on United Nations system-wide
coordination and accountability for gender equality
and mainstreaming, while the mandates of the pre-
decessor entities encompass a convening/partnership
role with civil society, government, private sector and
other key stakeholders working on EVAW.
47 General Assembly resolution 64/289, para. 53.
28
Demonstrated capacity for partnership and
convening
UN Women and its predecessor entities have formed,
maintained and expanded networks and partnerships
to increase coherence and coordination of efforts with
a wide range of actors at global, regional and national
levels. UN Women has also benefitted from partner-
ships with multiple actors from grassroots and civil
society groups to government actors, and normative
and intergovernmental bodies. Through these rela-
tionships, UN Women was able to establish external
advisory groups at global, regional and country lev-
els, and formal mechanisms for collaboration at the
CSW57, all of which helped to ensure high participation
rates and strong engagement at the meeting.
Inter-agency collaboration and
coordination
In terms of inter-agency coordination at the coun-
try level, UN Women and its predecessor entities
have been able to further EVAW-related work, to a
greater or lesser degree, through the United Nations
Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF), joint
programmes, gender theme groups and specialized
EVAW working groups.
• UN Women and its predecessor entities promoted
the integration of gender equality in the UNDAF
process. UNDAFs reviewed for the seven case study
countries included gender equality, either as an
objective or mainstreamed across the different com-
ponents. A comparison of earlier and more recent
UNDAFs for these countries suggest improvements
in the way that VAW is addressed, either under
pillars related to safety and security, governance or,
to a lesser extent, social protection (see Volume II,
Appendix XI for an overview of coordination efforts
in EVAW at the country level). UN Women offices
in general are continuing their coordination efforts
to strengthen new UNDAFs with regard to gender
equality priorities.48
• Collaborative EVAW-related work during the review
period often occurred in the context of joint
48 An analysis by UN Women of the midterm review of strategic
notes and annual workplans points to emerging trends in the
work of UN Women country offices.
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services
programming involving two or more agencies,
and national government or civil society partners.
According to the Analytical Overview of the Joint
United Nations Gender Programme Portfolio
(2011), EVAW is the thematic area with the greatest
number of joint programmes.49 The 2010 Synthesis
of Resident Coordinator Annual Reports illustrates
consistent growth in joint initiatives of the United
Nations system to end VAW (from 28 examples
in 2004, to 104 examples in 2010) and associates
the increase both with the advocacy efforts of the
UNiTE campaign and better reporting on joint
programming.50 In five of the seven case study
countries, UNIFEM participated in joint programmes
which focused specifically on or had a component
addressing EVAW (see Volume II, Appendix XI).
• Since becoming operational in 2011, UN Women has
increasingly taken the lead on UNCT gender theme
groups and VAW-related working groups.51 India is
the only country case study with a specific inter-
agency working group focused on VAW (See Volume
II, Appendix XI).
• UN Women and its predecessor entities have done
less work, at least in the countries visited, in review-
ing and influencing the strategic frameworks of
the UNCT member entities. However, a UN Women
review of annual workplans reports that many
49 EVAW accounts for just under one-third of all of the 113 joint
gender programmes carried out by United Nations entities
(not only the former UNIFEM) during the period 2001-2010.
The second most common theme for joint gender pro-
grammes is governance. UN Women, Analytical Overview of
the Joint UN Gender Programme Portfolio, 2011, p. 8.
50 United Nations Development Group, UN Country Coordination
– Jointly Achieving Development Results: Synthesis of 2010
Resident Coordinator Annual Reports, p. 19
51 UNIFEM did not often have sufficient capacity or country
presence to take on a leadership role in the gender theme
group. In Brazil, Guatemala, Morocco and Mozambique, UN
Women currently chairs or will soon chair the respective
gender theme group. India is the only one among the seven
visited countries where UN Women currently leads an inter-
agency coordination group with a specific focus on VAW. In
Jamaica, the Resident Coordinator planned to establish a
gender theme group with UN Women as the chair, but this
group was not yet active in October 2012.
29
 country offices are now facilitating the implementa-
tion of the gender score card by UNCT.52
• In general, the effectiveness of UN Women’s efforts
at country level coordination through formal
mechanisms is not yet clear. Indeed, more was
expressed about the expectations of the UNCT
vis-à-vis UN Women’s role in country-level coordina-
tion, although this is partly because in the country
offices visited the UN Women representative had
only recently arrived and UN Women had just taken
over the leadership of theme groups.
• At the regional level, UN Women’s predecessor
entities often took a lead role in organizing and re-
porting on the UNiTE campaign, especially through
sub-regional offices. UN Women’s regional archi-
tecture allows stronger inter-agency coordination
at the regional level than its predecessor entities.
The regional coordination mechanisms (RCM) of the
United Nations system, in particular, give rise to the
possibility of regional civil society advisory groups
being created and a generally stronger engagement
with regional bodies and processes.
At the global level, formal coordination mechanisms
such as the EVAW Task Force of the Inter-agency
Network on Gender Equality and Women’s
Empowerment (IANGWE) have promoted joint action
on EVAW, although their credibility and momentum
have been difficult to sustain over time. Over the past
year, the Chief Executive Board’s (CEB) endorsement
of UN-SWAP and the QCPR directives have provided
opportunities for greater accountability in the United
Nations system on gender mainstreaming.
UN Women and its predecessor entities have also intro-
duced tools to keep track of EVAW-related activities of
the United Nations system and Member States. These
mechanisms have contributed to enhancing transpar-
ency and, albeit to a lesser degree, accountability of
actors as regards their efforts regarding EVAW. The
inventory of United Nations system activities in EVAW,
created by DAW in 2007 and now maintained by UN
Women, provides an overview of activities and results
achieved by different actors in the United Nations
52 The scorecard refers to the UNCT performance indicators for
gender equality and the empowerment of women which
focuses on joint processes and institutional arrangements
within the UNCT.
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services
system. However, it did not provide a complete account
of the individual agency’s EVAW efforts (the informa-
tion provided in the inventory is the compilation of
information as provided by different country offices
of individual United Nations entities). Several respon-
dents identified such data compilation and databases,
including the Secretary-General’s database mentioned
in Finding 4, as tools for enhancing knowledge and
transparency of EVAW-related efforts, both within and
outside the United Nations system. However, there has
been no systematic review of the effectiveness and
usefulness of these tools to date.
In general, there is a sense that mechanisms for un-
derstanding, coordinating and tracking the efforts of
United Nations entities in the area of EVAW need to
be strengthened. Neither the inventory nor IANGWE
(or other formal mechanisms) have facilitated a clear
system of coordination within the United Nations
system for collecting and sharing data on what United
Nations entities are doing and for informing decisions
of each of the entities.
• While the UNiTE campaign is not a coordination
mechanism per se, it facilitates coordination within
and across the various levels of inter-agency action,
particularly through awareness-raising campaigns.
Evaluation data indicated that the UNiTE campaign
contributed to coordinating VAW-related efforts
within and outside the United Nations by outlining
a set of commonly agreed upon, broad priorities
for VAW-related work to which individual efforts of
different actors could contribute. The five goals of
the UNiTE campaign easily translate into common
messages, and provide opportunities for shaping
common positions on VAW within the United
Nations system. More importantly, in some cases
the five goals of the framework of action have taken
on a programmatic approach to VAW. For example,
proposals from UNCTs to the UN Trust Fund must
53 See, for example, the UN Trust Fund 2012 call for proposals.
54 In Cambodia, the Minister of Women’s Affairs requested the
United Nations use the UNiTE campaign as a framework for
providing more coherent support to the government, includ-
ing the development of a new EVAW national action plan.
UN Women, Second Meeting of UNiTE Campaign’s Global
and Regional Campaign Managers and IANGWE Focal Points,
Istanbul (Turkey), April 2012 (internal document).
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
30

BOX 2.4
UNiTE Campaign Goals
• Adoption and enforcement of national laws
to address and punish all forms of violence
against women and girls, in line with interna-
tional human rights standards.
• Adoption and implementation of multi-
sectoral national action plans that emphasize
prevention and that are adequately resourced.
• Establishment of data collection and analysis
systems on the prevalence of various forms of
violence against women and girls.
• Establishment of national and/or local
campaigns and the engagement of a diverse
range of civil society actors in preventing
violence and in supporting women and girls
who have been abused.
• Systematic efforts to address sexual violence
in conflict situations and to protect women
and girls from rape as a tactic of war and full
implementation of related laws and policies.
establish an explicit link to the campaign and
indicate the intended contributions to one or more
of the UNiTE campaign goals.53 In addition, there
is evidence that the UNiTE goals provided Member
States with a framework for the types of support
they can request from the United Nations.54 At the
global level, UNiTE-related meetings have usually
included members of coordinating mechanisms
on gender equality and/or VAW (such as IANGWE,
the United Nations Action Against Sexual Violence
in Conflict and the UN Trust Fund) as well as
representatives of individual entities such as the
United Nations Economic and Social Commission
for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) and the United
Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Interviews with
staff members from United Nations entities and
members of several UNCTs indicated that in some
regions, such as Latin America, the regional UNiTE
campaign coordinators played an important role in
facilitating discussions on joint regional initiatives
on VAW.
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services
• The lead-up to and support for CSW57 is a good
example of efforts to bring together global actors.
Indeed, it was a big success in terms of reaching
consensus and creating momentum. Heads of 11
United Nations entities signed a joint statement
calling on all governments to honour their EVAW
obligations and affirmed their commitment to
collaborating towards this goal. The question is:
how does one sustain that momentum through to
results on such important issues as the commit-
ment made by United Nations entities55 regarding
how they would integrate EVAW?
2.5 Further clarification of UN
Women’s mandate areas in EVAW
Finding 12: UN Women’s approaches to implementing
all aspects of its EVAW mandate, particularly its coordi-
nation mandate, and the synergies between the three
dimensions of its mandate (normative, operational and
coordination) could be clearer.
Clarity of the mandate and what it means
for EVAW work
Although external stakeholders understand the broad
areas included under UN Women’s mandate, they are
often not clear on the specifics of how it is being oper-
ationalized. As noted by one of the respondents, “they
are new but moving in the right direction,” yet also
need to “watch out for the trap as a nascent agency
of trying to be seen as doing everything” and thus of
getting spread too thin.
With regard to its operations mandate (in terms
of EVAW), external stakeholders in the case study
countries were aware of the intentions to expand
the emphasis on operations, but given UN Women’s
“newness” were not yet clear how it would go about
it differently than in the past. The country offices
have given continuity to planning and programming
processes of the predecessor entities’ EVAW-related
55 Joint Statement by Heads of UN Agencies on Ending Violence
against Women and Girls. Available from http://www.
unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2013/3/joint-statement-by-
heads-of-un-agencies-on-ending-violence.
56 UN Women, Brief Analysis of the Midterm Review of Strategic
Notes and Annual Workplans, January, 2013.
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
31
work through two-year strategic notes and annual
workplans (AWPs) which articulate the approach to op-
erations in each country. UN Women’s internal review
of these AWPs indicated that they were supporting a
gradual shift towards a programme approach, but that
small projects still continued in all regions.56 The field
visits also found project-based approaches at country
level and identified challenges to EVAW work that re-
lated to the country programme cycle.
UN Women has extended its emphasis on operations
and at the time of the evaluation was restructuring its
regional architecture to strengthen its field presence,
not only in terms of staff numbers but also by ensuring
that there are appropriate levels of expertise, decision
making and support available in all geographic regions.
Based on available information, it appeared that even
after restructuring, the number of staff in most field
offices will remain modest compared to other United
Nations programmes and funds, such as UNICEF and
UNFPA.57 Although not necessarily a weakness, this
is likely to require active management of staff and
partner expectations, a clear and defined scope for
UN Women’s operational role in EVAW (i.e. coverage
in each country) and placing of value on the coordina-
tion and catalytic aspects of work in the field. Another
operational mechanism that continues to be of critical
importance to UN Women’s work on the ground is the
UN Trust Fund, though in the past the extent of inte-
gration of its projects into UN Women’s programming
for EVAW has varied from country to country.
As regards its normative support mandate area (in
terms of EVAW), UN Women’s internal and external
stakeholders are clear about the nature of the man-
date and the approaches used, recognizing that the
principal support function for intergovernmental work
is at headquarters, but that regional and country of-
fices work with Member States to help them prepare
for key processes, and then implement the global
normative framework through national legislative and
policy frameworks.
Both external and internal stakeholders considered im-
plementation approaches to UN Women’s coordination
57 UNICEF and especially UNFPA are relevant comparisons given
that they are often among the most active United Nations
entities working on VAW.
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services
mandate (in terms of EVAW) to be less clear than those
for its normative support and operations mandates.
Country case studies illustrated the potential and the
demand for UN Women to play a greater role, but it
was unclear what this role would look like given the
current resourcing and capacity of the country offices
(in particular in Brazil, Grenada, Guatemala, India and
Jamaica). There is broad agreement that a coordination
role is more about developing in-depth knowledge of
who is doing or could do what in terms of EVAW and
connecting different actors, rather than telling others
what they should be doing or doing everything itself.
One UN Women source indicated “we have a mandate
that gives us the role of a convener. We also have a
culture of collectivism and that benefits an issue like
EVAW.”
The Implementation Strategy for the System-wide and
Inter-agency Mandates and Functions of UN Women
(March 2012) describes UN Women’s approach to
fulfilling its role in this area, but focuses largely on
inter-agency cooperation within the United Nations
system. The General Assembly resolution on the QCPR
of January 2013 (A/RES/67/226) delineates a broader
mandate area, one that encompasses a convening role
and partnerships with other actors, which was also
inherited from UN Women’s predecessor entities.
Fragmentation of EVAW-related work
The creation of UN Women enhanced the possibility of
achieving a more coordinated and coherent approach
to EVAW by bringing together different types of gen-
der and EVAW-related expertise and experience under
one roof. However, evaluation data indicated that UN
Women’s current EVAW-related efforts continued to
be fragmented due to the structure, division of labour,
communications and strategy challenges of a new
organization.
EVAW-related responsibilities are being fulfilled by five
different organizational Divisions within UN Women
(the Intergovernmental Support Division; the United
Nations System Coordination Division; the Strategic
Partnerships, Advocacy, Civil Society, Communications
and Resource Mobilization Division; the Policy Division,
EVAW section; and the Programme Division, which
leads decisions on EVAW programming at regional and
32
country-levels and also oversees the UN Trust Fund)
and while not necessarily problematic, at the time of
this evaluation clearly formulated mechanisms for
ensuring coherence and complementarity of different
streams of work on EVAW did not exist. There were
also some indications of misconceptions of roles and
responsibilities across the different streams.
In addition, the set of strategic documents available
at the time of the evaluation did not provide sufficient
guidance in this regard. UN Women’s strategic plan
2011-2013 included a specific goal on EVAW (goal 3) and
defined related indicators and targets at goal, outcome
and output levels. This is a positive step as it requires
regular and systematic reporting on EVAW progress.
At the same time, UN Women staff widely agreed that
outcomes and outputs in the strategic plan 2011-2013
did not sufficiently capture the nature and breadth of
what UN Women was already doing or what it was
aspiring to do.58 The evaluation team also found that
the assumed links between short- and long-term re-
sults (outputs and outcomes) of goal 3 are not always
clear. Moreover, while UNIFEM had a strategy for EVAW,
it has been of limited use for guiding and/or commu-
nicating the priorities and foci of UN Women’s work in
light of its expanded mandate and the growing inter-
est in establishing clearer linkages across the goals of
UN Women’s strategic plan.59
Part of UN Women’s strength is its overlapping and
complementary mandate areas, but the challenge is
to capitalize on this potential for developing greater
synergies between the mandate areas to be more ef-
fective in their EVAW-related work. Recent CSW-related
work has exemplified how the three mandate areas
can come together around a particular event in such a
way that the whole becomes more than its parts. The
question then is how can UN Women achieve similar
synergy in its day-to-day operations in a thematic area
58 Although consulted senior management emphasized the
consultative processes used to develop the strategic plan
2011-2013, several staff members expressed the view that
VAW experts inside the organization had not been sufficiently
involved in defining the strategic plan’s VAW-related results
and indicators.
59 At the time of writing, revisions to the strategic plan were
ongoing. The draft revised version was presented to the
Executive Board in June 2013.
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services
such as EVAW? The systems and processes aimed at
facilitating communications/joint internal work are
discussed in Finding 13.
2.6 Practices, systems and resources
to support UN Women’s work in
EVAW
Finding 13: UN Women’s systems and practices do not yet
meet its needs with regards to managing for results in
EVAW. There are several gaps in the information required
to plan, monitor, report, evaluate and learn from pro-
gramming experience.
UN Women inherited and is strengthening a number
of practices and systems to help institutionalize a
culture of results-based management (RBM). As noted
in the strategic plan 2011-2013, these efforts include
internal knowledge management, results-based
planning, budgeting, monitoring and reporting, and
evaluation. These practices were at different stages
of development at the time of this evaluation. Thus,
not surprisingly, the evidence pointed to gaps in these
systems and practices and their ability to meet organi-
zational needs.
Based on the evidence, UN Women has been less
successful to date in gathering information about its
initiatives/projects and resources invested in EVAW: The
current systems in place (Atlas, intranet, UN Trust Fund
grant management system, a results tracking system)
are not linked, thus making it difficult to get a complete
picture of the activities and resources being invested in
EVAW.60 This is primarily due to fragmentation of com-
munication/tracking systems, which means that the
EVAW section does not have all the key information on
EVAW-related initiatives. Moreover, at the country level,
it is challenging to get information on the proportion
60 For example, with regards to UNIFEM’s work, 186 VAW-
related interventions were shown to have been entered into
Atlas. However, this number included double entries with
the same initiative being entered under different numbers.
Documentation was not available for 27 per cent of the en-
tries, while information on other entries varied considerably
in scope and type. The evaluation team also found several
unexplained anomalies in data entry (e.g. negative expendi-
tures). During the country site visits, it became evident that
not all VAW-related initiatives had been captured by Atlas.
33

BOX 2.5
Good practice: Capturing and disseminat-
ing outcomes of UN Trust Fund grantees
In 2011, the UN Trust Fund commissioned a
study to map outcomes in the area of EVAW
that were influenced by grantees from grant-
making cycles 2010-2014. The study provided an
example of how a large number of individual,
context-specific achievements can be brought
together in a meaningful way to tell a broader
“performance story.”
Source: Op. cit. 44
of core funds used for VAW-related work, as illustrated
in the case studies. The strategic plan results tracking
system is an alternative approach for capturing results
and resources to inform reporting, but is not linked to
Atlas.
Understanding progress in EVAW and UN Women’s con-
tributions to this progress: While some progress has
been made to introduce RBM, problems of poor staff
procedures, processes and practices, and information
technology limitations, mean there is still significant
work to be done. Monitoring practices and the evalu-
ation function are also crucial in this effort since
baselines, regular monitoring and appropriate evalu-
ation activity give a better idea about changes in the
behaviour of social actors and the effects on EVAW.
Internally sharing good practices and lessons learned
from operational experiences: Several staff at regional
and country levels believe UN Women (and UNIFEM
before it) had been less successful in systematically
capturing the relevant knowledge, thinking and/or
good practices emerging from its programming and
internal sharing-related learning. For example, while
the Caribbean subregional office has achieved consid-
erable work on engaging men and boys in addressing
VAW, it has not until now, systematically captured,
analyzed and shared its experiences with other of-
fices. Staff in other visited offices expressed feeling
uninformed as to what was going on in other coun-
tries or regions. These limitations affect the extent to
which a global organization can really know about its
work, which in turn impacts upon accountability and
learning.
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services
Finding 14: UN Women is facing the resourcing dilemmas
faced by its predecessor entities and yet simultaneously
must live up to very high expectations requiring the stra-
tegic use of available resources while encouraging
funding commitments be kept.
When UN Women was created, the Secretary-General
proposed the start-up phase would require annual
funding targets of $400 and $500 million in 2012 and
2013 respectively. However, as shown in Table 2.1, con-
tributions have fallen far short of these requirements.
Table 2.1 shows that UN Women has been operat-
ing with constrained resources, having received only
half of the expected resources required to begin its
operations. As a result, it will not be able to meet
its mandate and fulfill its workplans, which has im-
portant organization-wide implications and direct
implications for its VAW-related work. It also means
the identified weaknesses in systems and practices af-
fecting UN Women’s ability to plan, report on and learn
from its work in EVAW, may be difficult to address in
the near term. At the time of writing, UN Women staff
were concerned that funding shortfalls could also af-
fect the sustainability of EVAW initiatives such as the
Virtual Knowledge Centre and the Secretary-General’s
database. In the absence of sufficient core and other
resources, UN Women’s work on EVAW is likely to con-
tinue to roll from project to project, which implies less
continuity and less ability to develop a more strategic
and long-term approach for dealing with deep-seated,
structural and highly challenging issues.
At the same time, UN Women faces rising expectations
regarding its work and thus faces the potential for
greater criticism. Civil society partners certainly expect
UN Women to play a stronger role than its predeces-
sor entities. UNCTs look to UN Women for leadership
on gender equality, including EVAW, yet are aware of
its funding situation. The United Nations system and
Member States also expect more, since the QCPR and
UN-SWAP further expanded UN Women’s mandate.
The international community, therefore, needs to step-
up and provide the resources required by UN Women,
otherwise the Secretary-General or an equivalent
senior figure must make clear the implications, in
terms of lowering expectations. Resources may also
need to be raised from alternative sources other than
the Member States, as recognized in UN Women’s
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
34
TABLE 2.1:
Contributions by source for the year ending 31 December 2012
(in thousands of United States dollars)

Regular resources Other resources Assessed resources Total

Governments 112,736 68,777 181,513

United Nations entities 271 19,362 7,235 28,868

National committees 184 935 1,119

Other donors 672 4,602 5,274

Total contributions 113,863 93,676 7,235 214,774

Source: UN Women Executive Director’s Annual Report (2012)

Resource Mobilization Strategy 2012-2013. In the case
of EVAW, resource mobilization is particularly crucial
vis-à-vis the role UN Women may be expected to play
in terms of follow-up to the agreed conclusions of
CSW57. It also increases the importance of UN Women
adopting catalytic approaches and making even stron-
ger use of partnerships, joint programming and other
dimensions of coordination in order to contribute to
EVAW-related programmes.

Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to

Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services 35
3.
CONCLUSIONS
As a new entity in the United Nations system, UN
Women has given continuity to the important EVAW-
related work of its predecessor entities, in particular
through the UN Trust Fund. The broad range of initia-
tives to support EVAW are, in general, enhancing the
global level normative frameworks, and supporting
national capacity to prevent VAW and provide services
to survivors. Initiatives and campaigns focusing on
prevention have helped raise the visibility of VAW, in-
creasing the awareness of and public support for EVAW
among decision makers, leaders and community mem-
bers. UN Women has also given substantive guidance
on good practices and contributed to the development
of an evidence base. In addition, through formal inter-
agency coordination mechanisms, joint programmes,
convening and collaborative efforts, UN Women has
used its capacity to mobilize key actors in support of
intergovernmental bodies and mechanisms, and has
helped to effectively promote joint EVAW-related ac-
tion. Data collected through the evaluation process
provide positive feedback with regard to UN Women
and its predecessor entities’ contributions in these
areas, despite the lack of data on actual mid- and long-
term results.
The creation of UN Women and its recent successes
have created high expectations which should be tem-
pered in recognition of it still being a new entity. UN
Women’s broad mandate is still being defined, and
gaps in the operationalization of this mandate as
they relate to EVAW at the global and country level are
being filled. UN Women can do more to strategically
manage its mandate areas by seeking synergies and
taking advantage of expanded roles, particularly with
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services
regard to coordination. It is still defining its niche and
ways of working at a time when it has still not received
initial financial commitments. In EVAW, as in other the-
matic areas, it is still in the process of defining what
it is best positioned to do, what it is most able to do
and how it will do it. Although UN Women has incor-
porated successful components of EVAW (such as the
UN Trust Fund and the UNiTE campaign) it still lacks a
coherent approach to managing these components so
as to maximize synergies and learning from the vari-
ous mechanisms.
UN Women lacks the appropriate systems that allow
it to manage for results, ascertain its performance,
capitalize on learning and make evidence-based
programming choices. UN Women is conscious of
the absence of systematic processes for the storage,
tracking and reporting on programmes and projects.
Furthermore, M&E practices and systems are not yet
robust enough to provide the evidence required for ac-
countability and learning purposes.
The present level of resourcing of UN Women presents
a reputational risk because the resources do not match
the expectations and this should be reflected in UN
Women’s EVAW strategy. Strategic and careful choices
need to be made about how UN Women engages in
the different mandate areas in order to maximize the
effectiveness of EVAW efforts. There is cautious opti-
mism following the agreed conclusions of CSW57 and
UN Women should seize the opportunity to build on
the momentum in the international community, while
recognizing the enormous impact particular national
and regional contexts will have.
36
4.
RECOMMENDATIONS
These recommendations focus on maximizing UN
Women’s efforts and contributions in the three man-
date areas, in light of its stage of development and the
larger context. The recommendations focus on EVAW,
although there are potential implications for UN
Women’s other thematic work areas.
While the recommendations are loosely organized
by mandate area, the evaluation has emphasized the
importance of better coordination across mandate
areas. This could be achieved by establishing a working
staff-level committee or task force that examines or
maps internal relationships, defines what synergies/
opportunities could be pursued and the mechanisms
for their creation, implementation and monitoring.
Management could also initiate a process of commu-
nication across the entity on roles and innovative ways
of taking advantage of inter-mandate synergies. Doing
so would clarify and define UN Women’s comparative
advantage of having three mandate areas within one
entity, especially in relation to the roles of the various
actors and the results expected in terms of greater ef-
ficiency and effectiveness.
Strengthening normative support for
EVAW
The positive momentum arising from CSW57,
the approaching end/renewal of the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) and Beijing +20 are an op-
portunity for dialogue and to ensure implementation
of commitments.
Recommendation 1: UN Women should continue its sub-
stantive inputs and evidenced-based work in support of
enhanced normative frameworks. It should also provide
more guidance at the regional and country level on how
to translate normative work into operational work.
UN Women should continue its normative support
function for EVAW and improve linkages between
work at global and country levels.
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services
At the global level, UN Women should:
• Continue its corporate approach to the normative
support function, such as that provided during the
preparations of CSW57 and the General Assembly.
• Continue efforts to improve the evidence base that
informs Member States and practitioners (including
not only data and statistics, but also information on
good practices) and to facilitate the monitoring of
Member State commitments.
At the regional and country levels, UN Women should:
• Use regional hubs to facilitate linkages between
global norms and standards and operational work
in countries in the region. Guidance on how to help
governments and civil society translate normative
work into concrete actions should take into account
national specificities, particularly as regards the
CSW57 agreed conclusions. When developing the
guidance, consideration should be given to existing
work61 on how to implement or translate interna-
tional instruments on human rights into action.
• Ensure that the range of existing global normative
frameworks on VAW is systematically taken into
consideration in the design and management of UN
Women programmes.
• Continue to facilitate monitoring governmental
and non-governmental actors adherence to
international and regional instruments including,
for example, the CEDAW process and shadow
reports, and encouraging follow-up to the COMMIT
Initiative and CSW57. Governments and non-
governmental actors should also be made aware of
61 Such as: UNIFEM, Time for Action – Implementing CEDAW
in Southeast Asia, 2009; UNDP Pacific Centre and UNIFEM
Pacific Regional Office. Translating CEDAW into Law, 2008;
and CEDAW success stories which highlight global suc-
cess stories of progress towards the realization of women’s
rights (available from http://www.unifem.org/cedaw30/
success_stories/).
37
 the range of existing global normative frameworks
specifically on VAW.
• Pursue its comparative advantage in helping
countries develop, implement and monitor policy/
legal frameworks in line with global standards.
Strengthening operational/programmatic
support for EVAW
Recommendation 2: UN Women’s country-level activities
should be more strategic. It must maximize the benefits
of its limited resources, work with partners, be selective
in terms of where to engage, work to maximize buy-in of
others, and use the leverage and legitimacy that it has.
Given resource constraints and level of field presence,
UN Women will need to make strategic choices, par-
ticularly in its work on EVAW at the country level. In
order to be more strategic, it should consider:
• Building on its efforts to strengthen the country
programme cycle (giving consideration to a project
vs. programme approach, the latter offering the
possibility of a long-term perspective, as well as
selectivity). Strategic decision-making and resource
allocation should be contextual and country-level
theories of change for EVAW should be developed.
• Testing approaches that help to fill gaps in preven-
tion and multi-sector approaches at the country
level, with a view to working with government and
civil society partners, and United Nations entities
which can eventually take over operational work
and thus ensure maximum buy-in. Continuing
operational work through the UN Trust Fund and
undertaking joint programming models are means
of testing approaches and filling-in gaps.
• Continuing to work with proven models that include
a prevention component, such as the Global Safe
Cities Initiative, where there is also substantial
buy-in from other actors in the United Nations
system and an explicit objective for partners (local
government) to take over such efforts and move
them forward in a specified geographic area.
• Defining and increasing its work in prevention, in
particular in follow-up to CSW57, particularly with
regard to structural and underlying causes, and risk
factors that others are not addressing in-country.
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services
Strengthening coordination of and
accountability for EVAW
Recommendation 3: UN Women should further clarify,
operationalize and enhance its coordination mandate, in-
cluding the accountability dimension, at global, regional
and national levels in order to further EVAW.
In light of multiple and overlapping areas of activ-
ity in EVAW among United Nations entities and
other international and national actors, UN Women’s
coordination mandate is crucial to ensuring coherent,
comprehensive multi-sectoral responses to EVAW.
It will also ensure the United Nations system works
together more concertedly, concretely and less com-
petitively as “one United Nations,” to bring out the
value-added of each agency.
Furthermore, in a results-based environment, value
must be given to work carried out with other entities
where UN Women makes only a partial contribution
which will require working with the Executive Board
and within the strategic plan 2014-2017 to give value
to coordinated work. UN Women may need to find in-
novative approaches to the coordination element of its
mandate in EVAW (and other thematic areas) in terms
of how to articulate the results of this work, how to
share credit with partners in a manner that allows
them to be catalyzing agents without being penalized
(meaning under-resourced) for this work. A clearer def-
inition of UN Women’s coordination mandate, which
encompasses both inter-agency coordination (United
Nations system) and a partnership/convening role
with a broad array of actors, is needed and should be
shared with both internal and external stakeholders.
Global-level: At the global level, UN Women should
strengthen coherence of EVAW policies, strategies and
programming within the United Nations system and
accountability of United Nations system on EVAW by:
• Following-up with agencies’ CSW57 commitments
by advocating for EVAW to be a strategic priority
and ensuring the necessary financial and human
resourcing.
• Continuing to creatively and actively engage in
strategic alliances and partnerships, as called for
in the Joint statement on ending violence against
women and girls.
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
38
• Enhancing the inventory and mapping exercises
of EVAW-related work to inform decision-making
on programming choices by UN Women and other
United Nations entities.
Regional and country-level: As a result of its mandate,
UN Women can legitimately enhance coherence on
EVAW at regional and country level by aligning with
regional priorities, national actions plans and carrying
out such measures as:
• Continuing to build strategic alliances and
partnerships with other agencies involved in data
collection/improvement initiatives such as the
United Nations Statistics Division, the United
Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the
World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan
American Health Organization (PAHO), as well
as regional centres of excellence on statistics, for
example, in order to improve data and statistics on
VAW.
• Working through regional coordination mechanisms
and UNCT gender theme groups to ensure more
coherence on VAW, for example by ensuring regular
mapping of EVAW-related work by the various enti-
ties, or by using the gender theme group to review
and look at coherence across country-level strategic
frameworks of other United Nations entities.
• Promoting the use of gender scorecards to ensure
UNCT accountability on mainstreaming gender
equality, and discussions on the depth and breadth
of efforts related to particular themes such as
EVAW.
• Continuing efforts to promote both gender equality
and EVAW in the UNDAF process by making it a
priority area.
• Ensure that UN Women headquarters and
regional offices provide support and guidance to
country-level practitioners to fulfill the coordination
mandate in relation to EVAW.
• Continue to develop and strengthen joint
programming initiatives in EVAW, particularly to
test new models and approaches or fill gaps and
develop an evidence base (by building strong M&E
components) on programming that can be used by
UN Women and other agencies to inform future
programming choices.
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services
Practices, systems and resources to
support EVAW
Recommendation 4: UN Women should develop a strat-
egy or guidance document, for both internal and external
use, outlining its EVAW mandate and, key priorities and
approaches in EVAW to make its efforts more coherent.
UN Women’s EVAW strategy should reflect on the
agreed conclusions from CSW57, expanding on what a
focus on prevention and need for comprehensive ap-
proach means for how UN Women can advance EVAW.
Forward-looking analysis, discussions and recommen-
dations on planning for post-2015 MDGs already refer
to VAW as a missing component of the previous agen-
da.62 Other public thematic consultations implicitly or
explicitly include protection from violence as part of a
strategy to tackle social inequalities.63
• The EVAW strategy should support the strategic plan
2014-2017 by providing more concrete and action-
able guidance to help country teams operationalize
the organization’s three-dimensional mandate
specifically with regard to EVAW.
• The EVAW strategy should include a revised theory
of change encompassing operational, normative
and coordination aspects of UN Women’s mandate,
building on the suggested theory of change
included in Appendix II.
• UN Women should be flexible in determining areas
where its work can be most effective at country
level, rather than pre-defining areas of focus or
exclusion around types of violence (e.g. trafficking,
sexual violence, harmful practices, intimate partner
violence, femicide, etc.) or population groups that it
will or will not work with at a corporate level.
• UN Women should organize and/ or convene work-
shops or similar brainstorming sessions with staff
to look at flagship initiatives, such as the Global
Safe Cities Initiative, to determine what has worked,
what has not and why, and the potential relevance
for other initiatives and future planning.
62 UNDG, The Global Conversation Begins: Emerging Views for a
New Development Agenda, 2013, p. 3.
63 UNICEF and UN Women, Global Thematic Consultation on
the post-2015 Development Agenda: Addressing Inequalities.
Synthesis Report for Global Public Consultation, February 2013.
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
39
• The strategy should guide how to develop interlink-
ages between VAW and other thematic priorities.
Additionally, the strategies for UN Women’s other
thematic priorities should continue to link with its
commitments on VAW.64
Recommendation 5: UN Women should continue to
strengthen RBM practices, encompassing improved
monitoring and reporting, evaluation and knowledge
management.
The management results framework of UN Women’s
strategic plan 2011-2013 emphasizes developing a
strong learning culture founded on RBM, reporting,
knowledge management and evaluation. Efforts to
strengthen organizational practices and culture that
promote the use of information and knowledge for
decision-making should continue.
• UN Women should emphasize efforts to improve
the quality of information and information systems
by carrying it forward as a priority area in its next
strategic plan. In so doing, it should emphasize
populating certain required fields to ensure the
necessary information is being gathered, thereby
improving data quality and access by relevant staff.
• The regional offices should serve as an information
repository of country-level activities and report
back to headquarters on a biannual basis to inform
decision-making. They could also play a role in
improving information sharing and communica-
tions throughout UN Women.
• UN Women should continue to improve its
monitoring of results for individual initiatives
or programmes and of its country strategies,
and should use this information to enhance the
effectiveness of its programmes.
• UN Women should carry out an evaluation of the
UNiTE campaign and other flagship initiatives. It
should also prioritize evaluations on EVAW strate-
gies where there is more limited evaluative evidence
to inform programming.
• In light of existing resource constraints, UN Women
should consider alternative approaches than
evaluation to gain lessons learned from their work.
Alternatives include workshops or studies on UN
Women’s work on men and boys which look at what
64 UN Women, The Future Women Want: A Vision of Sustainable
Developments for All (2012) is an example of a UN Women
strategy document which makes clear linkages between sus-
tainable development and VAW.
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services
has worked or not, how these elements fit together,
the likelihood of long-term impact and how this re-
lates to the literature. UN Women’s new knowledge
management strategy may help in this regard.
Recommendation 6: UN Women should not only pursue
and encourage Member State contributions to core re-
sources, but develop creative ways of tapping into the
resources of other partners so that there is a systemic
approach to resourcing EVAW at the global, regional and
country levels.
The full implementation of UN Women’s EVAW-related
mandate requires additional resources and increased
support from Member States. However, there are ele-
ments of the mandate that can be implemented in
greater cooperation with other partners by taking a
coordinated approach to EVAW, especially given the dif-
ferent components that require funding. UN Women
needs to be very creative in such a tight funding envi-
ronment, by thinking of new ways to fund its work such
as: engaging private sector partners; piggy-backing on
existing programmes; looking at how the system for
EVAW is being resourced; and seeking to maximize
efficiencies system-wide on EVAW rather than only
concentrating on organization-level resourcing ef-
ficiencies. A good example of system-wide funding is
the UN Trust Fund, which raises funds centrally and
then disburses to multiple agencies (rather than only
seeking funding for a particular organization). In this
context, UN Women should.
• Encourage Member States to not only keep their
commitments but also increase their contributions
to UN Women to ensure that key global initiatives
that may otherwise be difficult to fund through
targeted/earmarked donor resources are sustained.
• Promote a more systemic approach to resourcing
EVAW, not only through its resource mobilization
for the UN Trust Fund, but in its work with other
United Nations entities, particularly in light of the
follow-up required to CSW57.
• Continue with its resource mobilization strategy
for the private and voluntary sector for EVAW in
order to capitalize on corporate social responsibility
initiatives. Such efforts will continue to require
investment in private sector relationship manage-
ment capacity and expertise.
• Continue efforts to strengthen national committees
and their support for the EVAW agenda.
40
APPENDIX I:
LIST OF FINDINGS
Finding 1: UN Women is facing many of the challenges
new organizations often face pertaining to operation-
alization of its mandate, and establishing the systems
and level of resources to support such operationaliza-
tion. This is the lens through which progress made on
EVAW must be assessed.
Finding 2: EVAW-related work takes place in a dy-
namic global, regional and national context where UN
Women is affected by multiple political, cultural and
institutional factors, including the impetus provided
by CSW57 and the nascent post-2015 development
agenda. Such a context, and the legitimacy of the or-
ganization’s mandate, provide opportunities and give
rise to continuing challenges to furthering the EVAW
agenda.
Finding 3: The EVAW work of UN Women and its prede-
cessor entities has been relevant and responsive in this
context, as evidenced by its congruence with global, re-
gional, and national commitments and priorities. This
constitutes a strong foundation upon which to build
and advance efforts to end VAW.
Finding 4: UN Women is still in the process of defining
its niche within EVAW relative to other organizations
(especially within the United Nations system) and how
it will add value to, and lead the work being done in the
area. This has implications for the effectiveness and
impact of its work.
Finding 5: UN Women’s work effectively builds and
expands upon the work of its predecessor entities to
enhance the normative frameworks of VAW. It does so
by giving substantive guidance on good practices and
standards, developing an evidence base, and using its
capacity to mobilize various key actors in support of
intergovernmental bodies and mechanisms.
Finding 6: UN Women and its predecessor entities pro-
vided technical inputs and funding to governments and
civil society partners, resulting in new or strengthened
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services
VAW-related national legal frameworks, policies and
action plans. While these frameworks constitute an
important step in enhancing national capacities for
addressing VAW, implementation remains a challenge
in many countries due to various political, institutional
and resource factors.
Finding 7: UN Women’s funding and technical sup-
port has contributed to expanding access to services
for VAW survivors at the country level. However, UN
Women has not tracked the long-term effects of in-
terventions in terms of the number and/or quality of
available services, or their actual use by and benefits
for survivors of VAW.
Finding 8: As a result of training, organizational
strengthening and other capacity development ef-
forts, UN Women has contributed to strengthening
the capacities of relevant national actors. Yet questions
remain about the sustainability of these initiatives,
particularly because capacity enhancements are often
not institutionalized.
Finding 9: UN Women has supported initiatives and
campaigns focusing on prevention. Field work sug-
gests that these have raised the visibility of VAW at
the country level, and have increased the awareness of
and public support for EVAW among decision makers,
leaders and community members. For the most part,
however, UN Women has not systematically monitored
or evaluated the effect such efforts have in contribut-
ing to changes in attitudes and behaviors related to
VAW.
Finding 10: UN Trust Fund grantees have also made
substantial and innovative contributions in prevent-
ing VAW, expanding survivor access to services and
creating an institutional response to VAW at the
country level. These activities have complemented UN
Women’s operational EVAW-related work.
41
Finding 11: At the global, regional and national levels,
UN Women has facilitated joint action by partners on
EVAW. However, its larger mandate for coordination
and promoting accountability of the United Nations
system requires further clarification, especially in
terms of approaches.
Finding 12: UN Women’s approaches to implementing
all aspects of its EVAW mandate, particularly its coordi-
nation mandate, and the synergies between the three
dimensions of its mandate (normative, operational
and coordination) could be clearer.
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services
Finding 13: UN Women’s systems and practices do
not yet meet its needs with regards to managing for
results in EVAW. There are several gaps in the informa-
tion required to plan, monitor, report, evaluate and
learn from programming experience.
Finding 14: UN Women is facing the resourcing di-
lemmas faced by its predecessor entities and yet
simultaneously must live up to very high expectations
requiring the strategic use of available resources while
encouraging funding commitments be kept.
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
42
APPENDIX II: LIST OF
RECOMMENDATIONS
Recommendation 1: UN Women should continue its
substantive inputs and evidenced-based work in sup-
port of enhanced normative frameworks. It should also
provide more guidance at the regional and country
level on how to translate normative work into opera-
tional work.
Recommendation 2: UN Women’s country-level ac-
tivities should be more strategic. It must maximize the
benefits of its limited resources, work with partners,
be selective in terms of where to engage, work to
maximize buy-in of others, and use the leverage and
legitimacy that it has.
Recommendation 3: UN Women should further clarify,
operationalize and enhance its coordination mandate,
including the accountability dimension, at global, re-
gional and national levels in order to further EVAW.
Thematic Evaluation on the contribution of UN-Women to
Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services
Recommendation 4: UN Women should develop a
strategy or guidance document, for both internal and
external use, outlining its EVAW mandate and, key
priorities and approaches in EVAW to make its efforts
more coherent.
Recommendation 5: UN Women should continue to
strengthen RBM practices, encompassing improved
monitoring and reporting, evaluation and knowledge
management.
Recommendation 6: UN Women should not only pur-
sue and encourage Member State contributions to
core resources, but develop creative ways of tapping
into the resources of other partners so that there is a
systemic approach to resourcing EVAW at the global,
regional and country levels.
43